Government plan ready to sell ‘unqualified’ land

ISTANBUL

The Turkish Finance Ministry will be authorized to tranfer land to TOKİ and municipalities, according to new planned legislation. AA photo

About 1 million houses and 1.74 million square meters of land whose cadastre works have been completed, all under the status of unqualified state-owned land also known as 2-B land, will open to sale with the amendment of legislation that bans sales of such land.

The Finance Ministry has finalized two draft laws that allow sales of 2-B land and houses to foreigners. The new legislation removes the reciprocity condition that blocked the sales of Treasury land that has lost characteristics of forest land. Preparation of such legislative changes could be made possible only after the amendment of the Turkish constitution in the 2010 referendum.

The final version of the two drafts will be approved today, at a meeting under the lead of Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, daily Sabah reported yesterday. Environment and Urbanization Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Forest Minister Veysel Eroğlu and other officials will participate in the meeting. The Environment Ministry is expected to submit the two draft laws to the Turkish Grand Assembly by the end of November.

Land subject to the new legislation makes up 3.4 percent of Istanbul’s lands, from which 26 billion Turkish Liras in revenue is expected to be gathered. The value of the land will be determined in accordance with the location of the real estate, according to the news report.

The land in the urban areas will be subject to sales within a month after the legislation enters into power, whereas a three months will be given to prepare lands located in non-urban areas for sale.

There will be no limitations on municipalities regarding the square meters of land for sale in urban areas and containing gardens or buildings.

The fee to apply for the sale of land in urban areas will be 2,000 liras, for non-urban it will be 1,000 liras.

If the public land has been used previously, it will remain to real and legal persons on condition that they have been using land for at least five years before the finalization of cadastre procedures.

Settlement in forest areas will be allowed on lands that have been classified as appropriate and registered as so by the Forest Ministry.

The transfer will be realized based on the square-meter value of the property. In the case of such transfers in the framework of gentrification projects, land owners will be given apartments in accordance with already existing regulations related to urbanization projects.