Earthquake safety and building codes in Turkey: what to check in a building before you buy

When foreign buyers talk about Turkish property, the conversation is usually about the view, the pool and the price per square metre. The February 2023 earthquakes in the south-east of the country brought back into that conversation the question buyers elsewhere ask first: how was the building built?

Why the construction year is the key number

Turkey's seismic codes have been revised several times, and each revision tightened the structural requirements substantially. A building designed under the current edition of the code and a building of the same height put up several decades ago are fundamentally different objects when it comes to how they behave in an earthquake.

• Don't ask "is the building new" — ask the year the building permit was issued and which edition of the code it was designed to.
• A refurbished facade does not change the structure. A renovated entrance and new windows tell you nothing about the load-bearing frame.
• Unauthorised alterations are a danger of their own. A load-bearing wall knocked out on the ground floor to make room for a shop is a classic story in older Turkish buildings.

Urban transformation

Turkey runs a programme to demolish and replace seismically unsafe buildings. For a buyer that means two different stories at once: an apartment in a building included in the programme may mean a new home in the future — or years of uncertainty, disputes between owners and no way to sell. Establish the building's status in the programme before the transaction.

Compulsory insurance

Earthquake insurance for homes in Turkey is compulsory (DASK); the policy is needed to connect utilities and is issued on the property. It is no substitute for checking the structure, but a seller without a valid policy is a reason to look at the property more closely.

What to check, specifically

• The building permit and the occupancy certificate — both documents, not just one.
• The design year and compliance with current codes.
• A structural condition report if the building is not new: an independent technical survey costs a fraction of the apartment.
• Ground conditions and location: in Istanbul, soil conditions differ significantly from one district to another.
• Status in the urban transformation programme.
• Whether the actual layout matches the documents — alterations to load-bearing walls.

How to think about it

Seismic risk is not an argument against Turkey — it is an argument against buying blind. The country has plenty of buildings built to modern codes with proper paperwork; the task is to tell them apart from the rest before the transaction, not after. This is exactly the case where an independent technical inspection is not excess caution but a mandatory part of the purchase budget.

Based on Turkish construction and seismic codes, the urban transformation programme and the compulsory earthquake insurance system for homes.