Hotels on public land in Türkiye: reading the usage fee and the revenue share

A tourism facility on allocated public land pays the Treasury two charges: a yearly usage fee (kullanım bedeli), set as a percentage of total investment cost and raised by inflation, and, once the facility opens, a revenue share (hasılat payı) of 1% of annual operating revenue. Both come from the allocation regulation, not from the hotel's own reporting.

Two resorts with the same rooms, the same rate and the same guests can carry very different costs, because one of them stands on land that belongs to the Treasury. The difference sits in two lines that a seller's profit and loss may not show at all. After reading this article you will be able to read an allocation file, place the two charges in your own operating statement, and ask your lawyer and accountant the questions that change the price.

What does final allocation (kesin tahsis) actually give a tourism investor?#

It gives a right to use a piece of public property for a tourism investment certificate in Türkiye, in one of three legal forms, once the investor has met the pre-permit conditions.

The legal root is Article 8 of Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634, which gives the Ministry of Culture and Tourism the authority to allocate public property to Turkish and foreign individuals and companies. The Ministry may allocate it, lease it or establish easements on it. The detail sits in the Regulation on the Allocation of Public Real Estate to Tourism Investments (Resmî Gazete 21 July 2006, No. 26235, consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) including amendments up to 1 July 2026). The regulation defines final allocation as giving a right to use public property to entrepreneurs who have met the pre-permit (ön izin) conditions.

Article 19 lists the three forms. An easement (irtifak hakkı, including an independent and permanent right of superficies) is a registered right on the land. A lease (kiralama) is a contract with a term. A permit to use (kullanma izni) is for public land that cannot be registered in the land registry under its special legislation, so it is not registered at all. The form matters commercially: what a buyer or a lender can hold on to differs in each case.

Under Article 17, the Land Allocation Commission makes the final allocation for an entrepreneur who has met the pre-permit obligations and obtained a tourism investment certificate, or a main tourism investment certificate. Article 17(5) sets the term: up to 49 years by Commission decision, or up to 75 years for a main investor by Presidential decision.

One group is treated differently. Day-use facilities, cure centres, campsites, glamping (luxury tent) facilities and picnic areas or forest parks with accommodation are limited to 20 years and are made as leases. The exception is where an accommodation facility and a day-use facility are allocated together.

How is the usage fee (kullanım bedeli) calculated?#

As a percentage of total investment cost, paid yearly in advance, and re-based each year by inflation rather than by how the hotel trades.

Article 21 covers the rent, easement or permit fee on land under a final allocation. Payment is yearly in advance, starting from the date the final allocation letter is served. The first year's fee is 0.5% (binde beş) of total investment cost, and 0.25% for thermal, winter, rural and health tourism and qualified sports facility allocations. In provinces covered by Article 2 of Law No. 5084 these fees are halved.

In later years the fee rises by the CPI (TÜFE, the change in twelve-month averages), so a weak season does not reduce it. Thermal, winter, rural and health tourism and qualified sports allocations also get 70% off the first three years' fees. Where existing buildings are allocated together with the land, Article 22 sets the yearly fee at 5% of total investment cost, 2.5% for those categories and 0.5% for registered cultural property, plus the same revenue share.

Source: Regulation on the Allocation of Public Real Estate to Tourism Investments, Articles 21 and 22, consolidated to 1 July 2026.

Because the base is investment cost, the fee is fixed by what was built, not by what the property earns. That is the opposite of how a percentage lease behaves, and it is the first thing to check when comparing two properties.

What counts as revenue for the revenue share (hasılat payı)?#

The share is 1% of total annual operating revenue, and the regulation defines that revenue through the statutory chart of accounts, not through the reports a hotel manager reads.

Once the facility opens, the Treasury takes a revenue share of 1% of total annual operating revenue. The rate is 0.5% for thermal and winter tourism, registered cultural property and protected areas, rural and health tourism and qualified sports facilities, and it is halved in Law 5084 provinces.

Operating revenue is the sum of net sales, other ordinary income and profits, and extraordinary income and profits in the uniform chart of accounts income statement (tekdüzen hesap planı gelir tablosu). That base is wider than room revenue and wider than a departmental profit and loss. Items a hotelier treats as incidental can sit inside it, so the share is calculated on a number the front office never sees. A USALI statement and the statutory statement will not agree, because they group revenue differently; for this charge the statutory one governs, which is worth remembering when you read the departmental profit and loss statement under USALI.

The financial statements, certified by an SMMM or YMM, go to the defterdarlık or malmüdürlüğü by the end of May after the balance-sheet period. If the operation is leased to a third party, the lessor pays 1% on the rent and the lessee pays 1% on annual operating revenue after deducting the rent.

Where do the fee and the share sit in the operating statement?#

Treat the usage fee as a fixed, inflation-indexed cost of the asset and the revenue share as a levy on turnover, and keep both visible above the profit lines a buyer will pay for.

The usage fee behaves like rent: it does not fall with occupancy, so it raises the break-even occupancy the property must reach. The revenue share behaves like a turnover tax: it takes a slice of every lira of revenue, so it lowers the contribution made by the last rooms sold.

Neither belongs inside a departmental profit and loss. Book them as separate lines and repeat them in the owner's report, so that a buyer or a lender meets them early instead of in due diligence. In a valuation, both charges reduce the income the asset produces; capitalizing a profit that ignores them overstates the property. The same logic applies when you work through how a hotel is valued: income, cost and sales comparison.

For a payback sum, model two lines: a fixed yearly fee that grows with inflation, and a percentage of revenue that starts when the facility opens. For example, a facility with a 0.5% first-year fee on a stated investment cost, then CPI-linked, plus 1% of revenue once open, carries a cost that is small in a strong year and proportionally heavier in a weak one.

What happens at the end of the allocation term?#

The Ministry may reallocate the property to the same investor without a tender, for up to 49 years, at the Article 22 fee and revenue share, provided the use continues for its purpose.

Article 25 sets out that reallocation, and it is the simplest route: no tender, a fresh term, and the higher Article 22 rates. Extensions are a separate route with their own history. Temporary Article 23 of Law No. 4706, added by Law No. 7061 and in force since 5 December 2017, allowed final allocations, final permits, easements and permits to use to be extended to 49 years from the date of a new contract. The conditions were an application within one year, no outstanding debts, and an unconditional waiver of any pending lawsuit about the allocation, with the investor bearing all court costs. A 2019 amendment (Law No. 7201) caps campsites, day-use facilities other than mechanical lift lines and their day-use facilities, and picnic areas with accommodation at 20 years in total from the new contract.

The extension costs a one-off benefit fee (yararlanma bedeli) under Article 10 of the implementing regulation (Resmî Gazete 4 May 2018, No. 30411): the current year's total investment cost times 0.4% if paid in advance or 0.5% if paid in instalments, half these rates for thermal and winter tourism, multiplied by the number of extended years, and never less than the current year's fee. During the extended term, the usage fee and revenue share continue at the rates in the existing contract, which is why an old contract can be worth more than a new allocation.

Temporary Article 30 of Law No. 4706, added by Law No. 7565 and in force since 5 December 2025, gave those who had missed the earlier window one month to apply, at three times that fee, and provides that extension cases not concluded within six months of that date will not be processed afterwards.

What should you check in the allocation file before buying or leasing?#

Check the form of the right, the remaining term, the fee and share actually applied, and whether every extension or reallocation was concluded in writing.

The litigation point deserves emphasis. The waiver condition in the extension rules makes court history part of the asset, not just a legal footnote. If you take the operation as a tenant, establish who pays the 1% on rent and who pays the 1% on operating revenue after deducting the rent, and write the split into the lease; the same question comes up when leasing out a hotel through an ordinary lease, a hasılat kirası or a management agreement. Finally, check whether existing buildings sit inside the allocation, because Article 22 rates are ten times the land-only first-year rate.

What should you ask your lawyer and your accountant?#

Ask for written answers on the right, the term and the base, because each answer changes the price you should pay.

Your lawyer should confirm which form of right is registered, what the term is, whether any extension was concluded, what happens to the allocation when the operation or the certificate changes hands, and what the file says about pending or waived cases. Your accountant should confirm which lines of the statutory income statement feed the revenue share, how the usage fee is booked, and how the certified statements are prepared and filed by the end of May.

Ask both together whether existing buildings sit inside the allocation, and therefore whether the Article 22 rate applies. Confirm the current consolidated text and any amendment after 1 July 2026 with counsel before you sign; this article describes the regulation as consolidated to that date and is not legal or tax advice. Confirm dates, penalties and your own case with an accountant or legal adviser, since the same rule can land differently depending on the form of the right and the province.

What to do next#

Before you negotiate a price, ask for three documents: the final allocation letter, the current fee notice and the last certified financial statements. Put the usage fee and the revenue share into your own model as two separate lines, then let your lawyer and your accountant confirm the form of the right and the base of the share. The parts fit together in that order: the right sets the term, the term sets the fee, and the fee plus the share set the profit a buyer is really buying.