The real estate market in Turkey is defying the countries political upheavals, a showdown with Russia and ongoing migrant crisis. Just last week Turkey topped a global league table of 55 countries having the best house price increase of 18.4% in 2015.
In a recent report published by global real estate firm Knight Frank, Turkey tops their real estate house price index with prices up well over 18 percent in 2015, a real achievement considering the 2.7% global average. The companies global investment specialist Kate Everett-Allen is quoted as saying “strong levels of foreign investment, an expanding population – a 1.2% increase per annum – and a slowdown in construction explain the upward pressure on prices”. She continued, “Turkey is bridging East and West increasingly viewed as a safe haven for Middle Eastern investors”.
“The real estate market in Turkey has changed over the past few years” believes Suleyman Akbay of Oceanwide Properties, “A new wave of investors from the Middle East is driving up purchase statistics and the price of properties in Turkey in many areas”.
Up until recently the Europeans, Brits and Russians led the way in terms of foreign property purchases, certainly along much of the coast. Now we are seeing an obvious decrease in the Russian market, but far more interest from Turks and those from the Gulf. Since the property purchase restrictions were relaxed in 2012, there has been a steady increase in enquiries from further afield, particularly the Middle East and UAE. This is most lightly due to the range of affordable properties for sale in Turkey and also due to the cultural and religious similarities between the countries. Initially the majority of these investors were interested in developments in Istanbul but now the interest is spreading to the coast. Due to an increase in the amount of ‘halal concept’ hotels in coastal regions like Fethiye, more and more Arabs and Muslims are discovering the beauty and lure of coastal Turkey. Many then explore investments in the area as a result. On realising the affordability of the properties on offer, and considering the weak value of the Turkish lira against the US Dollar, buying a property in Turkey now, given the current exchange rate, makes sense.
House sales in Turkey also increased in 2015
Data from TurkStat (Turkish Statistical Institute) also pointed to a 10.6% increase in real estate sales in Turkey during 2015. A total of 1,289,320 residential properties were sold. TurkStat figures for the first eleven months of 2015 show that 22,830 Turkish properties were sold to foreign nationals and many industry experts expect this figure to increase during 2016. Data suggests that it is the Saudis that take the lead in terms of Turkish property purchase per square meter buying up a total of 1.24 million square meters between 2014 and 2015. The British demand still remained strong totting up 4,251 purchases from January to September 2015.
So, contrary to many peoples belief, the real estate market in Turkey is expected to preform well in 2016. Oceanwide Properties certainly hope this pans out to be the case.
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