The Kahramanmaraş earthquake in February 2023 killed over 50,000 people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings across southern Turkey. The root cause wasn't the earthquake itself — Turkey sits on major fault lines and has seen bigger quakes. It was decades of code-gaming: waivers, amnesties, and the "imar affı" programmes that legalised non-compliant buildings in exchange for fees.
The regulatory response has been substantial. The 2024 revised Turkish Seismic Code (TBDY 2024) tightened structural requirements. Kentsel Dönüşüm (urban renewal) programmes have accelerated in Istanbul specifically — older buildings identified as risk are being prioritised for demolition and rebuild with compensation packages.
For buyers, three practical checks:
1. Iskan (occupancy permit). A building without an Iskan is either non-compliant, unfinished, or both. No Iskan = no mortgage, no insurance, no legal utilities, no Tapu transfer for foreign buyers. Walk.
2. Year of construction. Anything built 2007+ falls under stricter codes (post-1999 Marmara quake reforms + 2007 BGS). Post-2019 is better. Post-2024 carries the new code but hasn't been stress-tested.
3. Soil report (zemin etüdü). Required for new builds; always request a copy. Amplification zones (alluvial basin areas in Istanbul) double or triple effective seismic demand vs rocky ground.
DASK (mandatory earthquake insurance) is ~$20/year and caps out at ₺2M. It's table-stakes; real cover comes from private top-ups. For buildings over $250k, serious buyers add private earthquake cover that pays replacement cost rather than the DASK cap.