Property valuation reports in Türkiye: what they prove and how to use them
A property valuation report is an expert opinion of value prepared for a defined asset, purpose and effective date. It should help a buyer understand how a professional valuer identified the property, described its legal and physical characteristics, selected market evidence and reached a value conclusion. It should not be treated as a substitute for title due diligence, a building inspection, planning verification or a contractual review. A buyer can have a technically valid valuation report and still face a mortgage, an unauthorised alteration, a seller-authority problem or a payment risk that the valuation was never designed to resolve.
Start with the exact property identity
The first task is to confirm that the report concerns the property actually being purchased. Compare province, district, neighbourhood, block and parcel and, for condominium property, the building or block, floor and independent-unit number with the current land-registry record and the physical unit. Review the report date and the person or entity for whose transaction it was prepared. A report for a neighbouring unit, another phase of a project or an earlier legal configuration should not be carried into the current transaction merely because the floor plan is similar. If the report records gross and net areas, land share, use type or condominium status, reconcile those fields with the documents used at closing.
Use the official valuation channel where the transaction requires it
TKGM regulates the valuation-report process used in specified transactions involving foreign natural-person buyers. Official guidance places applications within the Web Tapu/TADEBİS framework and requires reports used for the relevant land-registry process to be produced through the prescribed channel and standards. The same official framework also sets a use period for reports in title transactions, so the issue date matters. A buyer should therefore confirm the rule in force on the application date rather than relying on a report that a sales office says is “still valid”. SPK separately publishes the list of real-estate valuation firms recognised within the capital-markets framework. Where an official transaction requires a particular valuation route, the buyer should verify both the institution and the electronic record rather than accepting an unverified PDF.
Read the methodology instead of looking only at the final number
The conclusion is only as useful as the evidence behind it. Review how the valuer described location, building age and quality, floor, view, condition, legal status and marketability. Examine the comparable properties: are they from the same market segment, close enough in date and location, and sufficiently similar in size, floor, quality and legal position? Ask whether quoted comparable figures are completed transaction evidence or asking prices. A city or national index can provide context, but TCMB's housing-price index does not value one apartment. If a report makes large adjustments for view, age, location or condition, those adjustments should be understandable rather than arbitrary percentages.
Separate valuation from legal and technical due diligence
A valuation report can discuss legal records and physical observations, but it does not clear a mortgage, remove an attachment, prove that a representative may sell, or certify that every alteration complies with the approved architectural project. It also does not prove earthquake resistance. The buyer should run title, seller-authority, permit/occupancy and technical-condition checks as separate workstreams. If the report itself identifies a legal restriction, project mismatch, unfinished construction, damage, access problem or extraordinary assumption, that issue should be resolved directly with the competent source before the valuation is relied upon.
Understand the relationship between appraised value and sale price
An appraised value is not automatically the mandatory sale price. TKGM guidance for foreign-buyer valuation has expressly distinguished the valuation conclusion from the declared sale value and the title-deed fee base under the applicable legislation. The buyer should therefore keep three numbers separate: the contractual price agreed with the seller, the value concluded by the valuation report, and the value declared or used for official purposes under the current rules. In citizenship-by-investment cases, there are additional procedures for determining the qualifying investment amount; those requirements should not be imported into every ordinary purchase.
Keep the report auditable
Preserve the full signed or electronically verifiable report, its reference number, date, attachments and the evidence used in the transaction. If the deal is delayed, the unit changes, the building is completed after an off-plan valuation, or market conditions move materially, ask whether a new or corrected report is required. A strong valuation file preserves the property identity, date, assumptions and market evidence clearly enough for later verification. The correct question is not “Does a report exist?” but “Does the current report describe this exact property, for this transaction, using evidence that remains fit for purpose?”