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Sunday, May 6, 2012

New law removes restrictions to foreign purchases of real estate in Turkey

Turkish parliament has just passed a new law which will allow any foreigner to buy property in Turkey. The law removes a restriction called "mutualness" where if a country does not allow Turkish citizens to buy property in that country, this country's citizens could not buy property in Turkey. With the new law, practically will be effective in the next 15 days, this restriction is removed. This will allow Russians, citizens of Gulf States and Central Asia nationals to buy property in Turkey.

This law was supposed to be effective early 2012 but Turkish property developers, who are struggling to sell their mid to high end developments, pressed to release it just before summer, the hottest time for foreign demand for Turkish properties. With this law now, developers will have a very large pool of customers especially from Arab states.

According to Kanal D Property news, Qasim Sultan Al Banna, who has been director general of Dubai Municipality since 1992, has bought 50 flats from a development named My World when the new law is announced.[1] The Developer, Ağaoğlu İnşaat, has already collected deposit from foreigners  for 740 flats in Istanbul even before the law was passed. A company from Saudi Arabia, whose citizens could not buy property in Turkey before, has paid deposit for 400 flats in near Istanbul Olympic Stadium for investment purposes. Agaoglu now expects to earn 250 million dollar when the sales of these reserved units proceed. In fact, the developer targets a whopping 2 billion dollars of real estate sales to foreigners.

My World - Source : My World
Turkey has recently became very popular among its neigbours such as Russia and Arab states. 4 million Russian tourists are expected this year alone, who do not need visa to enter Turkey and stay 1 month. There is also a growing popularity among Muslim countries thanks to popular Turkish TV shows, recent more open and friendly policy of Turkey towards them and cultural similarities. With this rule, money from oil rich Arab states and natural gas rich Russia is expected to flow to Turkey to buy property.

There are mixed forecasts about the effects of this new law on the property prices in Turkey. CEO of Ukra Insaat, Kursad Tuncel, does not see a price rise due to the new demand from foreigners. This is because of the already huge supply in the market. [1] On the other hand, some experts predict 10 per cent rise in property prices when the law becomes effective. But it is pretty much likely that the price fall, which is awaited by many Turkish home buyers, will not happen or will not be as deep as expected.

.[1] - Qasim Sultan My World'den 50 daire aldi

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