Funding a Turkish property from UK equity: why a lira mortgage rarely pays and what works instead

Turkish banks lend in lira

Some Turkish banks do offer home loans to foreigners, including buyers who do not live in Turkey. Those loans are in Turkish lira. Private individuals resident in Turkey have not been allowed to borrow in foreign currency since 2009, and a euro or sterling mortgage from a Turkish bank is therefore not a normal consumer product.

That is the biggest difference from the eurozone countries UK buyers often compare Turkey with. In Spain or Portugal you borrow in the currency the property is priced in. In Turkey your loan sits in a currency that is neither your income nor, usually, the currency the price was negotiated in, and that affects both the rate and the risk.

The rate, strictly as orientation

The Turkish central bank held its policy rate at 37 per cent on 10 September 2026, its fifth decision in a row without a change; the next meeting is on 22 October 2026 and markets expect a small cut. Home loans sit above the policy rate: market sources put 2026 rates for foreign buyers at around 40 per cent a year, and terms are shorter than the 25 or 30 years you know from the UK.

Treat those figures as a picture of the market, not an offer. What a bank offers depends on your income, your commitments, the property and that bank's policy at the time. But even on a favourable file, the gap with a UK mortgage rate is so wide that the monthly payment makes no sense for most buyers. Non-residents are also usually asked to put in a large part of the price themselves, and a buyer who has that money tends to ask why they would borrow the rest at that price.

The currency risk that no rate captures

You earn in sterling and repay in lira. When the rate moves, the sterling cost of every payment moves with it, and it keeps doing so for the whole term. The lira has a long record of weakening: against the euro it averaged 48.5 lira in September 2025 and 56.0 lira in September 2026 on the European Central Bank's monthly figures, a loss of about an eighth in a year, even with the policy rate above 30 per cent throughout. Early in September 2026 a pound bought roughly 65 lira.

For someone with sterling income a weaker lira makes the repayments cheaper, but the direction cannot be predicted: against the high interest rate stands a currency that can also move the other way. The same applies to the property itself. The price is often discussed in sterling, euro or dollars, while the official value in the deed is in lira. Keep the two apart when you run your numbers.

What UK buyers do in practice

Most UK buyers in Turkey pay without a Turkish mortgage. The three routes we see most often:

• Savings. Money that is already available. Simple and interest-free, but it is capital that is no longer liquid.
• Borrowing against your UK home. A further advance from your current lender, or a remortgage to a lender that allows capital raising for an overseas purchase. Your UK home is the security, the rate is a UK rate, and it is a full credit decision with affordability and valuation. Not every lender permits it, so ask before you plan around it.
• A combination. Savings for the purchase costs and part of the price, UK borrowing for the rest.

A UK lender will not take a charge over a property in Turkey. Borrowing against your UK home is therefore assessed on your UK property and your UK income, and the risk sits at home: if the payments are not kept up, it is the UK home that is at stake. For buyers over 55 there are also lifetime mortgages and other equity release products; those are regulated advice in the UK and have long-term consequences, so take that advice from a UK adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Developer payment plans

On new builds, developers sometimes offer payment in instalments. That can look attractive, but it is not a bank mortgage and the terms vary widely. Have the terms, the building guarantees and the moment ownership passes into your name reviewed by a Turkish lawyer before you pay anything.

What this means for your plan

Start with the amount you can raise without a Turkish loan: savings plus any room on your UK home. Deduct the purchase costs, including the title deed fee (tapu harcı) of 4 per cent of the declared value. Guides describe that as split equally between buyer and seller, 2 per cent each, but in practice the buyer often pays it all; budget the full 4 per cent to be safe, and remember that the declared value cannot be below the municipal value. What is left is your realistic search range.

Plan the transfer of money as well. Moving a six-figure sum from sterling into lira or euro is where a poor exchange rate costs more than most fees, and the land registry wants to see the price paid through a bank. Then allow for the running costs: property tax, insurance, maintenance, possibly a service charge, all in lira and all rising with Turkish inflation. Owning a holiday home abroad does not by itself go on a UK tax return; letting it out does, as our letting guide explains.

Questions UK buyers ask

Further reading

• Buying a holiday home in Turkey as a UK resident
• Residence permit and citizenship through Turkish property
• Start a personal mortgage scan