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Just when we thought that the global property gloom & doom was never-ending, we appear to see a ray of hope emerge. That ray right now is on Turkey. With most global markets suffering from oversupply, price hikes and rising interest rates, Turkey shows us that there is indeed hope.
Thursday, July 17th, 2008 
Posted by OP-Mall in Istanbul Property, Property Reviews, Turkish Property
Yeşil İnşaat, a top player in the construction sector of Turkey is introducing Innovida 1, a modern, one of a kind residential community in the Beylikdüzü Ezenyurt region of Istanbul.
Innovida will be a 1,000 unit residential development located 30km’s outside the center of Istanbul due to complete in December 2010. Close to airports, universities and the coast, the location of this development will be a star attraction to bulk-buy investors with a capital gains or high rental yield strategy.
Turkey’s Land Registry figures show a piping hot market right now with over 74,000 foreign property owners in the country. Out of these, more than 20,500 are British. Considering British pensions and how they can easily supply a lifestyle in Turkey it is no wonder many Brits flock to the sun.
Although Turkey is behind the established property spots like Spain and France in terms of buyers, the country has morphed from being an emerging market for adventurous buyers to being listed in the top ten most popular destinations pretty much as a standard.
With the lift of the Turkish investor ban on May 1st this year, noting will hold property investors back from finding their own Turkish piece of real estate.
Judging by this years Formula 1 events so far, the boys in red are in top form with yet another win over the weekend in Istanbul.
Felipe Massa won his second race this year, out of 5 races so far and Kimi Raikkonen collected another 6 points for his team coming third. While Lewis Hamilton was forced to deal with a three stop tyre change due to last years dramatic tyre failure during the Turkey Grand Prix, it made it hard for him to beat the red team fair and square, but he still took home second place which is considerably impressive given his extra stop.
Kimi Raikkonen had his own fair share of action when he and his compatriot Keikki Kovalainen had a run in on the very first corner. It resulted in a tyre puncture for Kovalainen and a broken front wing for Raikkonen which he carried all the way through the race.
The end result was another clear win for Ferrari:
If you missed out on our former property grand prix posts, here they are again.
As you probably know by now, the ban on foreign property investment in Turkey has now been lifted which will allow investors to see Turkey as a real playing field again.
With an estimated tourism influx of some 28 million this year, the property market in Turkey is considered very favourable amongst investors and Realtors alike.
Back in April we blogged about the temporary halt on the sale of Turkish property to foriegners by a Turkish Constitutional Court ruling. The ban of the title deed act named Tapu has now been lifted by a new court ruling on May 1st.
The deed system change will be effective within the next few weeks once the official gazette will publish the news. What prompted this action was a constitutional rights contrary that affected article 35 of the Tapu title deed act.
Contrary to popular belief, the issue itself had nothing to do with whether foreigners were allowed to purchase property and land in Turkey, but more so with the size of land that could be bought according to the government.
A Turkish Constitutional Court ruling effective from today (Wednesday April 16) has put a temporary halt on the sale of Turkish property to foreigners.
According to Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, a circular letter was sent to all land registry offices in Turkey indicating the end of the sale of real estate to foreigners on Tuesday April 15.
A Resort in Antalya: With Turkey’s new FDI law in place foreign property developers have been barred from developing resorts like this
A law allowing the sale of real estate in Turkey to foreign companies was annulled by Turkey’s Constitutional Court last Friday. In an attempt to gain entry to the EU, Turkey’s centre-right government previously approved the law allowing the sale of Turkish property to foreign individuals and businesses. This however changed on Friday when the ruling of Turkey’s Constitutional Court favoured the nationalist-leaning Republican People’s Party.
This decision by the court would ultimately affect companies specifically set up to acquire property in Turkey by foreign investors through joint ventures.
Antalya Limani Turkey [Photo credits to Erdalde on Flickr]
This summer there has been a change of emphasis in news and publicity about Turkey. Those with long memories will think of the terrible Izmit earthquake of 1999 and more recently Turkey’s tourism potential was the subject a substantial TV advertising campaigns. However, the latest news has been about the electoral success of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, based on the country’s booming economy (with a few items about the tricky situation along Turkey’s frontier with Iraq).
Turkey appears to be on a wave of economic success, making the country increasingly important vis a vis the European Union, its main trading partner. In terms of property investment, this encouraging big picture suggests that Turkey is a good place to consider. Sites such as Nirvana certainly have lots of upbeat stories about investment in Turkey with companies as diverse as Germany’s ECE (shopping centre developments) and Sama Dubai investing at present. Focusing on real estate development, Rhiannon Williamson of Amberlamb was notably upbeat earlier in 2007, instancing investments by ETA Star and Emaar Properties, both of the UAE. Citibank extending its well-established Turkish network with a new branch in the southern coastal metropolis of Antalya should be taken as symptomatic of the prospects for the country’s economy, especially its further tourism potential. ING Real Estate is planning to invest upwards of half a billion euros in Turkey in the next few months.
For the private real estate investor Conti will give mortgages to Belgian, Dutch, German and UK nationals for up to 200,000 euros (or the higher level of £250,000 for UK citizens) with an LTV of 75% for Istanbul and the main tourist areas or 60% elsewhere. The maximum term is 15 years and the current variable rate for sterling mortgages is 7.75% (which seems very reasonable compared, say, to buying in England through the Abbey National). Given that Turkey has a higher inflation rate (8.2% in 2005 according to the World Bank) than either the euro zone or the UK, this seems like a good deal but bear in mind that there is bound to be some exchange rate risk. From next year investors should be able to take out local currency mortgages but presumably the high rate of inflation will bump up interest charges.
Interestingly, ING (see above) does not plan to target a local company for takeover although ING did acquire Oyak Bank for 1.9bn euros in June. Possibly, they have a partnership deal in mind because the Turkish market is not highly rated for transparency. The private investor should be prepared for any of the following: problems with title, poor build quality and lack of reliable price information. Rental yield data seems particularly hard to come by although the extended holiday season (some districts boast 300 days of sunshine) should help. Although tourist visits to Turkey have been rising quickly (24 million visitors in 2005), tourist spending is not so impressive (approximately $760 a visitor) although this doesn’t take account that some of these visits would have been city-breaks in Istanbul and holiday lets paid for in the visitors’ home countries.
Michael Harrop of New Turkish Properties estimates that the value of Turkish holiday property has gone up by 40% since the same time in 2005 and forecasts another 40% increase between now and 2010.
First-hand information on the rental market in Turkey’s tourist centres would be most welcome.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Australian Property, Jamaica Property, Malaysian Property, Miami Property, Property News Summaries, Syria Property, Turkish Property, UK Property
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Abu Dhabi Property, China Property, International Real Estate Trends, Japan Property, Mexico Property, Property Industry News, Property News Summaries, Turkish Property, UK Overseas Property Trends, UK Property, United States PropertyWe start the international property news beat on a light note with a post from Curbed L.A’s Celebrity Real Estate Wrap on Celebs (Tom Jones, Rudolph Velentino & Kirk Kerkon) moving homes.
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