Inheritance in Turkey for Foreigners: Wills and Property

Many holiday-home owners and retirees in Türkiye (Turkey) assume that the will they made at home covers everything. Inheritance in Turkey for foreigners, however, follows its own conflict rule: whatever your nationality, Turkish real estate passes under Turkish law. This decides who inherits, whether your will can be carried out as written and what your heirs must do in Türkiye after your death.

Which law governs a foreigner's inheritance in Türkiye?

MÖHUK art. 20 (Law No. 5718 on Private International and Procedural Law) sets the rule: succession is governed by the deceased's national law, but Turkish law applies to immovable property located in Türkiye. The opening of the succession, its acquisition and the division of the estate follow the law of the country where the estate is located, and an estate in Türkiye without heirs passes to the State.

In practice, for a German national owning a flat in Antalya and a Turkish bank account, the flat passes under Turkish succession law, while the bank balance is governed by German law as the national law, which a Turkish court applies of its own motion (MÖHUK art. 2). For German nationals, the 1929 Turkish-German estate agreement (Tereke Anlaşması), which takes precedence as an international treaty (MÖHUK art. 1/2), leads to the same split. Courts in other countries apply their own conflict rules, which may point elsewhere, for example to the law of the last habitual residence, as the EU Succession Regulation generally does. Wills in both countries should therefore be coordinated.

Who inherits your Turkish property if there is no will?

Turkish law distributes the estate by groups of relatives and gives certain heirs a reserved share (saklı pay) that a will cannot remove (Civil Code arts. 495–506):

You can freely dispose only of the part of the estate outside the reserved shares (art. 505). If a will leaves your Turkish house entirely to a partner or friend, reserved heirs may ask a court to reduce that gift (tenkis davası, art. 560). An unmarried partner is not a legal heir under Turkish law and can benefit only through a will, within the freely disposable part.

How can a foreigner make a will in Turkey?

Turkish law recognises three forms of will (art. 531):

• Official will (resmi vasiyetname): prepared by a notary or civil judge of peace with two witnesses (art. 532). If you do not speak Turkish, a sworn interpreter must be present (Notaries Law art. 74), and the official keeps the original (art. 537).
• Handwritten will (el yazılı vasiyetname): written entirely in your own hand from start to finish, with the year, month and day, and signed (art. 538). You may deposit it, open or sealed, with a notary.
• Oral will: possible only in extraordinary situations such as imminent danger of death, before two witnesses (art. 539).

A will made abroad is valid in form if it complies with the law of the place where it was made or of the law governing the succession, and wills made in the form required by the deceased's national law are also valid (MÖHUK arts. 7 and 20/4). Türkiye has also been a party to the 1961 Hague Convention on the form of testamentary dispositions since 22.10.1983. Capacity to make a will is judged under your national law at the time of making it (art. 20/5). If you keep wills in two countries, state which assets each covers, so that a later will does not unintentionally revoke an earlier one.

What must the heirs do after a death?

Can foreign heirs keep inherited Turkish property?

Usually yes, but Land Registry Law art. 35 limits foreign ownership: foreign individuals may acquire property if they are nationals of countries designated by the President, within area limits (in total no more than 10 per cent of a district's private land and 30 hectares per person nationwide) and outside military and security zones. If inherited property falls outside these limits, the heir must sell it within a period of up to one year set by the Ministry of Finance; otherwise it is liquidated and the proceeds are paid to the heir.

Before relying on a plan, check with the land registry whether the heirs' nationality and the property's location raise any restriction. More on succession issues is available on our inheritance law page. Since cross-border estates depend on both countries' rules, individual legal advice is recommended before you draft or change a will.