Turkey’s Trade Ministry said Thursday it has reset the start date for a mandatory “Secure Payment System” for real estate sales to Dec. 1, giving agencies, banks and industry stakeholders time to finish technical and integration work.
The ministry said a regulation on real estate trade was amended April 29 to protect buyers and sellers from fraud and forgery, reduce unregistered transactions and ensure money moves in a secure setting. Under the change, if any part of a property’s sale price is paid in cash, by bank transfer or by electronic funds transfer, the payment must go through the system, which ensures that ownership and payment change hands simultaneously.
Technical work is continuing in cooperation with the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, the ministry said. It said the technical infrastructure for data sharing between the directorate’s information systems and banks has been prepared, while banks are still building their own systems.
The ministry said a further regulatory amendment will formally set the new start date, which it said is intended to ensure the system operates “effectively, securely and without interruption” and to head off technical and operational problems. A separate change calls for naming an integrator to ease and speed data sharing between the directorate and banks.
The ministry said it expects to launch a pilot program once banks’ systems are ready.
