REAL ESTATE MARKET OVERVIEW

In principle, foreign individuals may acquire immovable assets in Turkiye based on two major factors:

an existing reciprocity between Turkiye and the respective country of the foreign investor

the total size of the real estate acquired or an interest acquired by the foreign individual will not exceed 30 hectares nationwide and 10% of the district where the real estate is located. (With the land registry law emended on May 18, 2012)


While foreign investment trend in Turkish properties was primarily in holiday homes on the limited areas on coastal Turkiye by mostly Europeans, Russians earlier; following the enactment of the reciprocity law, sales of real estate to foreigners started to increase and reached USD 2.64 billion in 2012 and continued in growing numbers since then. During the last decade the real estate sector accounted for approximately 5 percent of Turkish GDP and investment amount in real estate and construction reached USD 4.1 billion in 2015, which is almost 25% of total FDI.

According to Invest in Turkiye Agency, it is estimated that around 6.7 million residential units nationwide will be demolished and rebuilt over the next 20 years. Around USD 15 billion of financing will be required each year for urban renewal projects and a total budget of USD 400 billion has been allocated for this initiative.

It is evident that more sophisticated and diverse investors aroused and invested in different geographical parts of Turkiye for both investment and lifestyle purposes.

According to Turkish Statistics Institutes numbers, while major EU countries continue their investments in Turkiye, there is a big investment flow from Gulf countries last few years.


Below list identifies top 10 investors in Turkiye in terms of the number of individual transactions.

10/2018

2017

1

Iraq

6,305

3,805

2

Iran

2,704

792

3

Saudi Arabia

2,217

3,345

4

Kuwait

1,786

1,691

5

Russian Federation

1,779

1,331

6

Afghanistan

1,591

1,078

7

Germany

1,468

772

8

Jordan

1,049

9

United Kingdom

1,013

794

10

Azerbaijan

940

942

TOTAL

FOREIGN BUYERS

30,431

22,234

Here are the top 5 locations in Turkiye, where foreign nationals purchased properties in 2017 and 2018.

10/2018

2017

Istanbul

(%33.45)

10,178

8,192

Antalya

(%21.02)

6,397

4,707

Bursa

(%7.12)

2,167

1,474

Yalova

(%5.40)

1,642

1,079

Ankara

(%5.27)

1,604

817

Source: Turkish Statistics Institute

Useful links:

GYODER
http://www.gyoder.org.tr/en/reports/

Turkish Statistics Institute
http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/Start.do

Invest in Turkiye
http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/sectors/Pages/RealEstate.aspx

PwC
https://www.pwc.com.tr/en/sektorler/gayrimenkul/yayinlar.html