How our service works

Once you have appointed Property Search Turkey to undertake a search for you, we invoice you for our initial search fee (see 'What it costs' section for details).

On receipt of your payment, we will send you a detailed questionnaire, designed to give us an in-depth idea of what is important to you. This covers not just the obvious things like location, price and number of bedrooms/bathrooms, but also less tangible issues like atmosphere, building style, views, neighbours and future prospects for neighbouring plots. A property might look perfect on paper, but will the details point out next door's noisy cockerels or the nearby mosque, whose Imam might be calling his flock to prayer as early as 5am during the long summer days?

We also try to get a good feel for who is going to be using a property.  For instance, if we know you have teenage children, then we wouldn't recommend a remote property which doesn't have good public transport options into the nearest town or village, so that you are not constantly ferrying them around. If you are planning to rent out your property, we can also advise you on attributes which will help to attract your future clients.

Armed with this information, we'll incorporate it into a clearly-defined property search plan, which you will have the opportunity to peruse before we actually start the search. This is to ensure that we have understood your requirements as clearly as possible and also helps you to identify any areas you wish to review.

Once we (and you) are satisfied that we have an accurate view of your requirements, we will liaise directly with property owners and reputable local agents to match them with available properties. We are already familiar with most properties on the market, and our excellent relationships with local agents and developers mean that we often get to hear about new properties before they actually hit the market.

We will then build a shortlist of suitable properties – anything from three to ten properties, depending on availability and the strictness of your criteria.  We will send you extremely detailed information on the properties, together with photographs of each property and its surroundings - if necessary, clearly pinpointing any issues that we think need highlighting. We will grade each property according to your criteria and you can decide which of the properties you would like to view.

The next step is to arrange a viewing trip, for which we will set up firm appointments for viewings, so that none of your time in Turkey is wasted. We can also help you with any local arrangements, such as car rental, accommodation and airport transfers. (Please note that we do not take commission from any suppliers and any discounts are passed directly on to our customers). One of us will accompany you to every viewing and, as far as possible, we will try to ensure that you are accompanied by the same person throughout your stay.

If you decide you would like to go ahead with one of the properties, then we will negotiate with the owner on price and timetable for completion. We will do our utmost to negotiate the lowest possible price for the property, again passing any savings on to you. If the property requires any minor items of work – this can even be the case with brand new properties – then we would also ensure that those works form part of your contract with the seller.

Once a price has been agreed, the usual practice is for the buyer to pay a deposit, returnable only if the buyer is not granted military permission to own the property as a foreigner. Although this may sound a little alarming, it is just a practical step by the Turkish government to ensure that foreigners do not buy land or property which is next to military or other classified installations.

While you are in Turkey, we can also help you to undertake any necessary formalities, such as opening a bank account, obtaining a tax number and designation of Power of Attorney, if applicable. This is useful if you don't want to have to return to Turkey to sign the purchase contract once military clearance comes through. We will also introduce you to a reputable, English-speaking lawyer, who will ensure that all aspects of the sale are legal. You should always consult a lawyer, just as you would at home.

As soon as military permission is received, which can take anything from a few weeks to a few months, the sale is completed and the property is yours. At this stage, we will submit our final invoice to you, which should be paid at the time of completion. Most banks in Turkey offer online banking, so purchase funds can be transferred from the UK to your own bank account and then transferred by you directly to the seller. Alternatively, we can hold the funds in our client account and then transfer them to the seller at the time of completion.

Post-completion, we can also help you with other matters relating to your new property, such as alterations or repairs, having utilities and building taxes transferred into your own name and even shopping for furniture, white goods and curtains etc. If you are buying for investment or if you are particularly short of time, we can even undertake the entire process for you, including supervision of any repairs/redecoration and purchase of all furniture, white goods, curtains and household equipment.

If you would like to employ a management company to take care of your property and/or take care of your guests if you rent out your property, then we can also put you in touch with some suitable organisations.