Sales of land and property to foreigners were suspended in April following a deadline that the government missed to amend the law. The Constitutional Court gave the Government 3 months, from January 16, to submit amendments before suspension would be enacted. However, 3 months wasn’t enough time for the Turkish Land Registry Directorate to amend the law and take it before the Government for approval, and as of 16 April all sales of land and property to foreigners were suspended.

Two months on and things are starting to happen. Last Thursday Parliament debated the new draft law and, although reports are sketchy, it may now go before the President for approval.

So everything should get back on track? Well, maybe not. The new law will introduce a 10% foreign land and property ownership limit by municipality (council area). Quite how this will work hasn’t been made clear and leaves us with a number of questions:

• Will it be 10% of land area, 10% of property units, 10% of population or 10% or something else?
• What area will the municipality cover?
• Will it be the local Council area or something wider?
• What will happen if an area is already over ‘10%’?
• Will foreign owners in an area over '10%' only be able to sell to Turks?

There really are so many unanswered questions right now. But with many of the smaller Council areas probably already over ‘10%’ in some way or another clarification of how the Government will implement the new law will be eagerly awaited by existing and potential property owners.