Here you will find hints and useful information on emerging Turkish real estate market and Turkish way of life in general. As of July 2012 some highlights on Turkish property market:
1. Turkey’s realty sector is unlikely to follow the Spanish path because prices have not reached a point where they are grossly inflated.
In Turkey property prices have been rising by around 10% per year (Source: Hurriyet Daily News July 2012), which means that in five years we could see them rise by as much as 50% because the trend continues.
2. Another reality to remember is that the legal barrier on buying a property in Turkey as a foreign individual on reciprocity grounds has already been lifted a month ago. The law is expected to double the foreign investments in Turkey’s real estate sector.
It has now lifted all the reciprocity protocols that barred citizens of 89 countries from owning a property in Turkey. (Turkish nationals still are not entitled to enjoy the same right in the prospective buyer’s country of origin.)
The new law is expected to attract property investors from Russia, Gulf countries and Turkic republics to Turkey’s real estate sector.
3. The third reason Turkey is following a different path to Spain is that local authorities are careful to place strict planning restrictions on new developments. This means there are minimum distances between buildings and there are few high-rise blocks dominating the skylines of coastal resorts.
4. Property development in Turkey has accelerated to meet demand and there is evidence of this in the main Turkish holiday resorts. Unlike Spain however, this is matched by demand on the local market according to real estate sources in Turkey.
5. Healthy rental yields are the most important thing to consider when investing in property and here too there is a big difference. Rental yields in Spain are about 3% in most resorts (Source: Global Property Guide 2012) due to oversupply issues, yet in Turkey yields are 7% or higher, partly due to the relatively low price of property.
6. Finally, unlike Spain, Turkey is predicted to continue being one of the fastest growing economies amongst OECD members until 2017 with anticipated average annual growth of 6.7% while Spain can look forward to 0.3% growth in 2013 in comparison (Source: OECD 2012).
