Turkish Property Sales to Overseas Investors Surge

The number of Turkish property sales to overseas property investors surged in September, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Sales to foreign buyers were up by a massive 75.2 per cent when compared to the same month in 2016.

2,236 Turkish residential properties were sold to buyers from overseas, with approximately 35.6 per cent (or 797 units) of them in Istanbul, the country’s largest city by population.

In second place came Antalya. The Mediterranean holiday resort saw 520 properties sold to overseas investors, while the Aegean province of Aydın, the northwestern province of Bursa and the Black Sea coast province of Trabzon shared third place with sales of 119 properties.

The figures released by TurkStat showed that Iraqis topped the list of buyers in September with 383 properties. Saudi Arabians followed with 344 units, Kuwaitis 160, Russians 129 and the British purchased 103.

Chairman of Ege Yapı, İnanç Kabadayı, said the number of residents bought by foreigners gives a positive picture, and believes that this year will end with record numbers in Turkish housing sales.

He said: ‘The demand of domestic investors and residents in the local market and the keen interest of foreigners in the Turkish real estate sector continue their upward trend.’

The latest September figures also showed that the overall number of residential properties sold in Turkey soared by 28.8 per cent annually in September.

These latest figures keep the residential real estate sector in Turkey on course to sell 20,000+ properties to non-Turkish nationals in 2017, and an overall total of 1.5 million million residential properties, as around 1 million residences have been sold in the first nine months of the year.

Melih Tavukçuoğlu, head of the Istanbul Anatolian Side Contractors’ Association, said: ‘The increase in house sales to foreigners show confidence in Turkey. It has increased and discounts in value-added tax for foreigners as well as granting citizenship to foreigners who buy real estate in Turkey worth a minimum $1 million had a positive effect on house sales.’