Overseas Property Investors Talking Turkey

The number of properties sold in Turkey to overseas property investors grew by 25.8 per cent year-on-year in April.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data released last week confirmed that 2,043 properties were sold to overseas property investors during the fourth month of this year, representing a huge increase from April 2017.

The most popular area for foreign investors continues to be Istanbul where 676 property units were sold to overseas buyers.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya ranked second with 475 properties sold to foreign nationals, followed by the north-western province of Bursa in third place with 150 units.

The rise was despite overall property sales in Turkey falling by 9.9 per cent year-on-year in the same month.

Property sales in Turkey to overseas property investors reached a total of $42 billion from 2003 to 2017 and are now expected to break the $50 billion mark by the end of this year.

Sales have been steadily climbing from the $998 million total in 2003 to $4.64 billion last year. In fact the last five years has seen almost 100,000 properties sold to foreign buyers in Turkey.

Due to factors such as the increased property sales to foreigners, 2018 had a good start, up 20 per cent in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2017.

With the rise in exchange rates and the recently introduced reduction of the $1 million limit for citizenship with real estate purchases to just $300,000, the revenue generated from property sales to foreign investors is expected to reach a total of $50 billion by the end of 2018.

The reduction in the amount needed to be spent on real estate in Turkey in order to obtain citizenship is expected to make a huge difference to property sales to foreign nationals, as it brings the qualifying amount within reach of a far greater number of people.

It seems that overseas property investors are indeed starting to talk Turkey.