A power of attorney is the single tool that makes a remote property purchase in Alanya possible. It is also the single tool that makes a remote purchase dangerous. The difference between the two is not the document itself, it is how tightly you scope it.
This guide is about that trade-off: keeping the convenience of buying from abroad while keeping control firmly in your hands.
The trade-off in one sentence
A Turkish power of attorney, the vekaletname, must be notarized to be valid, and once it authorizes a purchase your attorney can sign the title deed at the Land Registry without you setting foot in Turkey. Convenient. But authority you grant is authority someone else holds, so every clause is a decision about how much control you are willing to hand over.
General vs limited: why scope is everything
There are two scopes, and the gap between them is where most foreign-buyer trouble starts.
| General PoA | Limited (special) PoA | |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | Broad, many acts | Only the specific tasks you name |
| Risk if misused | High, holder can act widely | Contained to named acts |
| Best for | Long-term, trusted relationships | A single property purchase |
| Forgotten-revocation danger | Severe | Limited |
If you grant a general PoA, or grant a sale power and forget to cancel it, the holder can keep acting on anything the document lists. That is precisely how owners get burned. A limited PoA confines the holder to the acts you wrote down, which is exactly what a one-off purchase needs.
Scope it like this
The goal is a document that does the whole job and nothing more. Name the powers explicitly:
- Sign the tapu and Land Registry documents for the specific property
- Obtain a Turkish tax number (the prerequisite for every other step)
- Open a Turkish bank account
- Take out DASK earthquake insurance
- Set up utilities and pay the related taxes and fees
Then tighten it. Where you can, name the property itself: "valid only for the purchase of Apartment No. X at Address Y." Some buyers add a clause making the PoA void the moment the transaction completes. Courts assessing later misuse will look at whether you genuinely understood the powers you gave, so precise wording protects you twice.
Who holds it matters as much as what it says
The biggest structural risk is concentration: a broad PoA handed to a lawyer introduced by the seller or the agent puts both sides of the deal in one set of hands. Appoint an independent attorney instead, someone with no stake in the sale. This single choice removes most of the abuse vector that scam cases rely on. If you want a fuller picture of how those cases unfold, read Property Scams in Alanya: How to Protect Yourself as a Foreign Buyer.
Issuing and revoking from abroad
You can issue the vekaletname at a Turkish consulate (prepared in Turkish, no apostille needed) or notarize it at home, apostille it, and have a sworn translator render it into Turkish. Costs are modest: roughly EUR 20-50 for sworn translation, EUR 20-100 for an apostille, and EUR 20-50 per page for translation inside Turkey.
Control does not end at signing. Revocation runs through a notary via an azilname, which only you can issue. PoAs notarized from 1 January 2023 can be revoked online through WebTapu, and the attorney's authority ends the instant it is recorded. Treat revocation as the final step of the purchase, not an afterthought.
A scoped PoA is one layer of a disciplined purchase. For the wider process, see our Is Buying Property in Alanya Worth It in 2026? A Practical Guide for Foreign Buyers, and if you are buying a new build, Buying Off-Plan Property in Alanya: A Foreign Buyer’s Guide to New-Build Projects covers the extra checks off-plan deals demand.
Bottom line
Remote buying is safe when the document is narrow and the attorney is independent. Grant only the powers the purchase needs, tie them to the property, choose a lawyer with no link to the seller, and revoke the moment the keys are yours. That is convenience without surrendering control.
