Turkey has been among the star countries in property sales to foreigners in recent years. Especially, many retired people from foreign countries have bought houses in this country, Brits to be in the first place.
This being the case, recent crisis experienced in value of Turkish Lira against dollar and other major currencies has only strengthened the demand from foreign buyers and property companies have been truly busy during the past few weeks to respond to inquiries about properties in locations such as Bodrum, Fethiye in south western Turkey mainly, not to forget Istanbul.
Tolga Ertukel, Director of Turkey Homes which is one of the leading real estate companies in the Turkish market, comments that there is no doubt the decline in Turkish Lira has triggered demand from foreign buyers who would like to purchase property in Turkey. Mr. Ertukel says “A customer can currently buy a property for 20 percent less money than a couple of weeks ago. This is obviously because the buying power of sterling has increased as Turkish Lira has lost value against it. This makes the purchase more attractive and motivates the potential buyer.”
Mr. Ertukel emphasizes that this situation can also be observed in the number of inquiries received each day and the number of entries on the web page of the company with keywords about properties in Turkey, mainly.
The increased interest for Turkish properties does not originate from Brits and potential buyers from Western Europe only or expat Turks living in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to use the crisis to close profitable deals. Prospective buyers from Middle East have also shown growing interest for the past few weeks in specific and flights from the Middle East to Istanbul are recorded to be fully booked currently with investors flocking to Turkey to close deals.
On the other hand it is important to know developers in Turkey will be seeking to look for ways to raise the price of new houses or apartments (in some cases up to 20 percent) to compensate for eventual losses due to currency fluctuations. Therefore it could be a good idea for potential buyers to evaluate opportunities in due time that is before this decline in lira is compensated by price increases to be introduced by developers.
