“A new project in Antalya aims to prevent the heirs of foreigners who own real estate in Turkey from being divested of their rightful inheritance in the event of death for such landowners,” Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review reports.

“The event prompted moves to better track down the possible inheritors of deceased property owners, according to officials. Now, when a foreign resident passes away in the district, the Alanya Birth Registration Office relays that information to the Alanya Fiscal Directorate and the Antalya Revenue Office. The fiscal directorate first determines whether the deceased person had any real estate registered in his or her name; if such property is found, a written statement is then sent to the relevant embassy regarding the matter. In such a case, the property is only temporarily taken over by the state if an heir cannot be located by the embassy, daily Radikal recently reported.”

“Alanya was selected as the pilot region for the project, and the two British nationals whose properties were left over to the state were eventually turned over to their heirs,” the newspaper says.

Kerim Baliktay, head of the Alanya Real Estate Agents’ Association, also said he found the new regulation positive. According to him, foreigners owned approximately 100,000 properties in the country – 20 percent of which are in Alanya, the source says.