Start with the fraud, because it is the part that ruins people
Everything else in this article is arithmetic. This part is not, so it comes first.
The dominant fraud in property purchases anywhere is payment redirection. Somebody gains access to an email account, watches a genuine transaction, and at the right moment sends you a message that appears to come from your lawyer or the developer, saying the bank details have changed. The wording is normal, the tone is right, the timing is perfect because they have read the whole thread.
Money sent this way is usually gone. Not delayed, gone.
The defeat is unglamorous and it works. Verify every set of bank details by voice, on a number you already had, before the first transfer and again on every subsequent one. Not the number in the email. Not by replying to the email. Ring the number you have used before and read the account details aloud to a person who confirms them.
Do that and this entire category of loss disappears. Skip it once, at the moment when everyone is busy and the completion date is close, and it does not.
What you will actually be asked to pay, and when
Payments follow the stage of the purchase rather than a calendar, and the pattern is fairly consistent.
| Stage | What moves | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation | A modest deposit that takes the property off the market | What makes it refundable, in writing, before you send it |
| Contract | A substantial percentage on signature | That your lawyer has finished the checks first, not afterwards |
| Construction stages | Instalments tied to progress on a new build | Payment triggered by verified stages, not by dates alone |
| Completion | The balance, at handover | Snagging resolved before this leaves your account |
| Transfer | Fees and taxes at title transfer | Rates confirmed in writing by your lawyer on the day |
The distinction in the third row matters more than it looks. An instalment due on a date arrives whether or not the building has progressed. An instalment due on a verified stage keeps the incentive where it belongs.
Nobody legitimate will ever be upset that you telephoned to check the account number. Treat irritation at that question as the answer to it.
The currency question, answered honestly
Property here is generally priced in a foreign currency, most often sterling or euros, while daily life runs in Turkish lira. That split has two practical consequences.
First, if you earn in euros and the price is in sterling, or the reverse, the exchange rate is now part of your purchase price, and it moves. On a staged purchase over two or three years, that is not a rounding error. Ask your bank or a currency service about a forward contract, which fixes a rate for a future payment. It is a normal tool and can remove the uncertainty from a payment schedule.
Second, the cost of moving money is not the headline fee. It is the fee plus the margin built into the exchange rate, and the second is usually larger than the first. Compare the total amount that lands in the destination account, from two or three providers, on the same day. That is the only comparison that means anything.
The habits that keep this boring
- Send a small test transfer first, confirm it arrived by voice, then send the balance
- Pay from an account in your own name and keep every confirmation, because proving where the money came from matters later
- Never pay a deposit in cash without a written receipt naming the property and the reason
- Never send money to a personal account when the contract names a company, or the reverse
- Tell your bank in advance that a large international payment is coming, so it does not get frozen on the day
- Keep the payment schedule and every receipt in the same folder as the contract
What good practice looks like from the other side
You can judge a seller by how they handle money, and it is one of the more reliable signals available to a buyer.
Good practice looks like written payment schedules, invoices for each stage, bank details that never change, an unhurried response when you ring to verify, and no objection whatsoever to your lawyer holding funds where that is appropriate.
Poor practice looks like verbal amounts, pressure to pay before documents are read, a request to split a payment between accounts, a change of bank details near completion, and irritation at being verified.
We publish written payment stages for every listing and we expect to be telephoned and checked. If anyone connected to a purchase, including us, ever asks you to send money without confirming the details by voice first, stop and call the office on the number you already have.
