After a difficult year for various economic sectors, activity returned to Turkish real estate sales to foreigners from early 2021, amid expectations of achieving a record number by the end of 2021.
Omar Faruk Iqbal, head of the Turkish Real Estate Promotion Association Abroad, says that they are about to achieve a new record in real estate sales to foreigners.
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That’s by the end of this year, and they expect to generate $7 billion in revenue.
In his speech, Iqbal stated that real estate sales to foreigners are an important component of direct investments in Turkey and that 70 percent of these investments are real estate investments.
He explained that real estate sales to foreigners in the first five months of this year increased by 24.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Data from the Turkish Statistics Authority show that 15,740 units were sold in that period and that there has been a steady increase in real estate sales to foreigners over the past five years.
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But with the exception of last year, when sales decreased by 10 percent as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, when 40,000 units were sold.
The decline in real estate sales to foreigners in Turkey was only 10 percent last year.
While this percentage in Turkey’s competing markets has reached more than 70 percent,” according to the head of the Turkish Real Estate Promotion Association Abroad.
He added, “We expect to generate $7 billion in real estate sales to foreigners by the end of this year.
We also expect to achieve a new record in the number of units sold, which is about 50,000 units, and to break the current record of 45.5 thousand.”
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China enters the list
Iqbal confirmed that the Iranians are at the forefront of the list of nationalities that buy real estate in Turkey, followed by the Iraqis and then the Russians.
He mentioned that China, which is the largest buyer of real estate in the world, entered for the first time last year on the list of buyers.
Noting that their investment in real estate in Turkey can be increased easily.
“China can top this list if we do the right promotion, issue some regulation, pay attention to the quality of after-sales service, and give licenses to intermediary enterprises in sales.”
He pointed out that the demand for real estate purchases has recently increased by the United States, which is known to be the world’s most attractive country for investment and the most welcoming to expatriates and foreigners.
He explained that Americans’ interest in buying real estate in Turkey increased by 200 percent with the outbreak of the Corona epidemic.
In addition to the increased demand for buying real estate in Turkey by citizens of Britain, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.
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source of hard currency
Mr. Iqbal pointed out that the association is working to promote and encourage living in Turkey, through a guide to buying real estate in Istanbul that they prepared in cooperation with the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce.
He continued: The automotive sector is the leading sector in Turkish exports, with an annual volume of 25 billion dollars, while the proceeds from the sale of real estate to foreigners amount to 7 billion.
He said that selling real estate to foreigners could rank third in the list of service exports after transportation and travel services.
Iqbal expressed the desire of those in charge of the sector to include it in the list of activities that are a source of foreign currency.
This is so that the sector’s importance and reputation increase, and so that companies that promote abroad can benefit from the support and encouragement of the state.
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Official numbers
Iranian nationality topped the purchases of residential real estate in Turkey during the past year, with a total of 7,189 properties, up from 5,423 properties in 2019.
And ranked second in the world and first in the Arab world, the Iraqi nationality came with a total of 6,674 properties during the past year, compared to 7,596 properties sold in the previous year.
While the Russian nationality ranked third in the world with a total of 3,078 sold properties during the past year, up from 2,893 units in 2019.
In the list of the top 20 nationalities around the world buying residential real estate in Turkey, there were 8 Arab countries that purchased 13,260 properties in 2020.
They are Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
