«In three years, will I be able to sell it and get my money back?» Almost everyone asks this before the deal. The answer usually arrives after it — once the holding period is over and there is no buyer.
We have worked with the Caribbean programmes since 2015, and with Turkey since the threshold was still $250,000. Over that time we have seen both good exits and hard ones. Below is what actually happens to the money after three to five years on three routes — without the brochure promise that «the investment comes back with a return».
The main point first: the exit is decided at the entry. In Turkey, by the type of asset you buy. In the Caribbean, by what the contract says. Everything that happens later only reveals a decision made on the day of the deal.
1. Three routes, three different answers
A contribution to a state fund. The money does not come back — not after three years, not after ten. That is not a flaw but the condition: you pay for the status, you do not buy an asset. For years we have told clients that for Caribbean citizenship this is the most honest deal: you know for certain the money will not return, and you make no plans around getting it back.
Real estate under a Caribbean programme. Usually this is not an apartment but a share in an approved hotel project. Formally the asset is yours and can be sold. In practice, only on the developer’s rules and with losses that depend on what you signed.
Real estate in Turkey. The only one of the three routes where you get an ordinary asset on an ordinary market: an apartment, a serviced unit, a hotel room. After three years you can sell it to anyone. The only question is whether there is a buyer at your price — and that depends entirely on the type of property.
2. Turkey: two types of asset, two different outcomes
Under the programme the property cannot be sold for three years — a restriction is entered in the title register (tapu) at the deal. After three years there is no restriction, and the citizenship is kept when you sell. The mechanics are in our breakdown of Turkish citizenship and on turkeyzero.tax.
From there the outcomes diverge.
Type one: a liquid asset with an operator. Clients who told us from the start «I need the money back, in three years I will sell» got properties chosen for that task: as a rule, a room or serviced unit in a hotel run by an operator, with income fixed by contract and a clear buyer at the exit — the management company itself.
One such case. A unit in an Istanbul hotel of an international chain, bought in 2020 for $250,000 — the programme threshold at the time. Throughout ownership the client received income under the contract with the management company. In 2024, four years later, the company bought the unit back at the entry price in dollars. Result: the full sum came back, the accumulated income was the gain, and the tax at exit was minimal. We have several such cases; they share one thing — the property was chosen for the exit before it was bought.
Type two: an asset «for yourself» or for rent. An apartment you like, in a building you like. After three years these clients either do not exit because they do not want to, or exit with difficulty. The difficulties are always the same: finding a buyer takes long; the dollar price comes in below the entry price — the lira lost value over those years, and dollar prices on the resale market do not keep up with inflation; the valuation for the new deal does not match the seller’s expectations.
This is neither the client’s mistake nor the market’s. These are different assets bought for different purposes. There is only one mistake: not deciding on the purpose at the start. That is why our first question when choosing a property for citizenship is not «which district» but «will you be exiting this?».
Tax on sale. A gain on the sale of real estate by an individual in Turkey is taxed as a capital gain if the property is sold within five years of purchase; after five years of ownership there is no tax. For sales within five years there is a tax-free allowance (150,000 lira in 2026) and the purchase price is indexed for inflation, so a sale at the dollar entry price usually produces a small tax — as in the case above. This is not tax advice: the calculation depends on your year of purchase and sale price, and must be done together with your Russian obligations if you remain a Russian tax resident (see our piece on tax for business owners).
3. The Caribbean: how the deal is built and why the exit goes through the developer
In the Caribbean, real estate for citizenship is usually a share in a government-approved hotel project. The holding period is set by the programme; after it, the share can be sold. But it cannot be sold «on the market» like an apartment in Istanbul: the transfer of a share can only be registered through the developer, who charges for it — in our experience, around $10,000. That is how the Caribbean deal is built: the developer earns on the first sale and on every one after.
We have told clients this since 2015: getting money back out of Caribbean real estate will be hard and uncertain. A fund contribution is cheaper, and you know in advance it will not return; real estate costs more, and nobody promises a return. Exits do happen, though, and they fall into three scenarios.
Scenario one: a large developer’s project with no buy-back obligation. After three to five years the developer is usually willing to buy the share back itself, to resell it to the next applicant. The discount is up to half: a share bought for $220,000 is bought back for about $110,000. This is not fraud; it is a market with a single buyer who knows it.
Scenario two: those who entered at $400,000. The mechanics are the same: a buy-back by a reputable developer, or finding a buyer yourself — and in the second case the losses are still large, because the transfer fee and the developer’s consent do not go away. Here we sympathise with clients: the higher the entry, the more painful the exit.
Scenario three: a mandatory buy-back written into the contract. Our best case is a project in Grenada where the developer undertook to buy back the shares at the end of a holding period of five and a half years. It was a limited offering; the term is now coming due, and clients are already receiving their money back under the contract. The difference from scenario one is not the developer and not the island, but one line: whether there is an obligation or not.
4. What to read in the contract before the deal, not after
These are the clauses that decide your exit. Find them in the documents before signing; if a clause is missing, that is also an answer.
- Is there a buy-back obligation. Who buys back, at what price (entry price, at a discount, at valuation), and how long after the holding period ends. «The developer usually buys back» is not an obligation. An obligation is a signature under a price and a deadline.
- Through whom, and for how much, the share is transferred. If only through the developer, that is a term of the deal, and the transfer fee should be stated as a number.
- Who manages the property and what happens to the income. For a Turkish hotel unit, the contract with the management company: term, rate, payment schedule, the company’s right to buy back.
- The holding period under the programme and under the contract. They may differ: the programme requires three years, the operator’s contract five and a half.
- The currency of the price and how the exit is valued. A dollar entry price does not guarantee a dollar exit price — in a volatile market this is the main cause of losses for those who bought «for themselves».
- Taxes on exit — in the asset’s country and at home. Holding period, tax-free allowance, indexation; for a Russian tax resident, declaring income from the sale of foreign property.
5. The bottom line
- A contribution does not come back — and it is the most predictable of the three routes.
- In Turkey the exit depends on the type of property: a liquid asset with an operator and a buy-back returns the investment; an apartment «for yourself» sells slowly and often below the dollar entry price.
- In the Caribbean the exit goes only through the developer: without a buy-back obligation in the contract, expect to lose up to half; with one, the money comes back under the contract.
- The exit decision is made on the day of the deal. We ask «will you be exiting this?» before choosing the property — and choose the property to match the answer.
If you are choosing between a contribution and real estate, or already hold a property and are approaching the term, describe your situation in the form — we will look at what exit is built into your documents. The companion piece: what happens to your money if the application is refused; and a side-by-side of the contribution routes: Vanuatu, São Tomé and Turkey compared.
This material is general information and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Case details have been changed.