Property & Real Estate Law

Property is the largest part of the firm's work and the area where the gap between what buyers expect and what the law actually provides is widest. Almost every serious problem we are asked to repair could have been avoided by a search and a clause.

Buying property in Northern Cyprus

A purchase here follows a sequence that is unfamiliar to most overseas buyers. Title is not transferred at completion of payment; it is transferred after a non-citizen obtains the consent of the Council of Ministers, which is a separate process on its own timetable. In the interval — which can run to a year or more, and for off-plan purchases considerably longer — your protection comes from the sales contract and from having registered it at the Land Registry within the statutory deadline.

That is the structural point buyers most often miss. A contract that has not been registered leaves you with a personal claim against the seller. A contract that has been registered gives you a right the courts will enforce against the property, including the ability to seek specific performance rather than damages. The difference between those two positions is the difference between a recoverable situation and a total loss if the seller becomes insolvent or sells the same unit twice.

What we do on a purchase

• Land Registry investigation — who actually owns the parcel, under which category of title, and what mortgages, charges, injunctions or caveats are registered against it.
• Title category analysis — whether the deed is Turkish, Exchange (eşdeğer), TMD/allocated or Foreign title, and what each means for your resale, financing and long-term risk. Our guide to title deeds explains the categories in full.
• Seller and developer due diligence — capacity and authority to sell, corporate standing, and whether the entity signing the contract is the entity that owns the land.
• Planning and building permissions — that what exists, or what is promised, is authorised.
• Contract drafting and negotiation — payment tied to verifiable construction stages, realistic completion obligations, penalties that bite, a retention until completion, and an express provision for what happens if the purchase permit is refused.
• Registration at the Land Registry within the statutory deadline.
• Purchase permit application and its conduct through to decision.
• Transfer of title and the tax and fee steps that go with it.

Off-plan and developer purchases

Buying from a developer before completion is common here and is not inherently unsafe, but it makes you an unsecured creditor for the period between your first payment and the transfer of title. The commercial terms — how much is paid, when, and against what — do more to protect you than any assurance in a brochure. We negotiate payment schedules against independently verifiable stages rather than calendar dates, and we advise clients to retain a meaningful final sum until the property is actually delivered.

Selling, and disputes over property

We act for sellers on the same transactions viewed from the other side, including where a buyer has defaulted. We also litigate property matters: specific performance, rescission and recovery of sums paid, disputes over boundaries and shared areas, claims against developers who have failed to complete, and applications for injunctive relief where a property is at risk of being disposed of.

Who we act for

Individual buyers purchasing a home or a holiday property; investors acquiring multiple units, where the choice between personal and corporate ownership matters; construction companies and developers on the sale side; and owners who have inherited or are disposing of property in Northern Cyprus from abroad.

How the work runs

A standard purchase is quoted as a fixed fee, agreed in an engagement letter before work begins, with Land Registry fees, official taxes and permit costs listed separately and passed on at cost. Searches are completed and reported to you in writing before you are asked to sign anything or transfer money. Where we act for a client who is abroad, the practical steps can generally be carried out under a limited power of attorney drawn specifically for the transaction — never a general power, and never one granted to anyone on the seller's side.