Here at Oceanwide Properties we note with interest this week that tourists are benefiting from the recent riots in Turkey thanks to the preferable exchange rate after the lira dropped recently down to 2.95TL to the pound. It means budgets will stretch further in the country which is now settling down following the city protests of recent months.
It also means that Fethive estate agents and those in other popular coastal regions of Turkey such as Kalkan are currently gearing up to cater for foreign investors who have been waiting for this type of favourable exchange rate for months now before clinching a real estate deal and saving themselves thousands of pounds in the process.
And more tourists than ever are set to benefit from the favourable rates with official statistics recording four million non-Turkish citizens entering the country in June – a 4.9 per cent year-on-year rise.
Despite the recent Gezi Park protests in Istanbul and follow-on demonstrations in other Turkish cities between May and July, Turkey’s busiest city also increased tourist numbers by two per cent with Istanbul still proving a popular destination (although officials admitted this figure has been boosted by tourists passing through on their way to coastal resorts and other Turkish inland destinations).
Meanwhile the coastal areas were hardly affected at all by the city riots (six per cent tourism increase in June and a predicted four per cent in July) and are still proving extremely popular destinations both for tourists and foreigners looking to invest in Turkish real estate. The coastal regions in particular have been subject to huge refurbishment projects, under the auspices of the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism in a bid to make them more attractive to foreign visitors.
UK citizens are second only to Russia as the nationality investing the most in property and land in Turkey – and much of the real estate is in coastal areas with property for sale in Fethiye and Kalkan property proving particular popular.
Meanwhile tourism in Turkey as a whole is up with 14.5 million tourists within the first six months of this year – an impressive 14.3 per cent year-on-year rise – reported the country’s Ministry of Tourism.
Istanbul most affected by riots
The Talimhane area of Taksim bore witness to the majority of the rioting and understandably hotel occupancy rates fell there as a result. The actual lowered rate was 50 per cent in June and up to 40 per cent in July, said a spokesman for the Talimhane Hoteliers Association (THA).
President of the THA, Osman Ayik described Istanbul as “a connection point” and said it was “the transit point between south and north, and east and west” therefore it was an important flow through area as well as a destination in itself.
You can find more news about the Turkish exchange rate as well as the latest excellent property deals at our website Oceanwide Properties where we also provide a wealth of information about moving abroad and what to expect.
