Gail

I have never been to Northern Cyprus but looked at buying there before we finally agreed on Turkey (mainland).

I have been told by friends of mine who have been there that it is a nice place but did anyone see the programme on criminals from here living over there as there are no extradition laws between North Cyprus and UK?

I saw it and was really relieved that we decided on mainland Turkey, also is it true that there could be problems with land in the future if you buy?

Gail

JohnF

Don't know too much about the criminals! But can tell you that they have at least three types of Freehold Title in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

1) Freehold where the property has been owned by a foreign national since before 1974 (safest one to go for if you can find one!)

2) Freehold where the property has been continually owned by Turkish Cypriots since before 1974. Have read that this form of Title is generally only transferred from Turkish Cypriot to Turkish Cypriot although that may have changed by now.

3) A TRNC Absolute Possession Document which applies to properties previously owned by Greek Cypriots before 1974. I believe there are differing types of this freehold and some are more secure than others.

It's unlikely the first two would have any problems in the event of re-unification, but obviously the third might. I suspect this is also the most common one when buying properties in TRNC.

I'm sure theres someone out there with a far better knowledge of property on the island if you really want to know more [|)]

Hope that helps Gail, I'm not an expert as we prefer mainland Turkey although my partner used to have to do an occasional visa run to TRNC when she worked in Istanbul a few years ago.

JohnF

Gail

Thank you John, that was very helpful. The programme I watched was Mackintyre Uncovered about the criminals living in TRNC, it was really interesting, he did an update as well which I watched.

Gail

kadin

Thanks Gail very interesting topic. Where in Turkey did you settle for?