Germans top list of foreign land buyers

ISTANBUL

Foreigners have bought some 19,000 real estate properties in Turkey after a bill removing the condition of reciprocity in land sales came into effect. Daily News Photo

Since May of last year, when a bill removing the condition of reciprocity in land sales came into effect, foreigners have purchased some 19,000 real estate properties in Turkey.

According to the total record count of real estate sold in Turkey since records first began to be kept, 139,859 foreigners have snatched up 152,993 properties in Turkey, said Environment and Urbanization Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar in a Jan. 15 meeting.

Out of the total number of properties sold to foreigners in Turkey, 18,935 were bought by 13,574 different foreigners after the bill’s implementation date on May 18, 2012, daily Milliyet quoted him as saying.

The bill eased restrictions on the sale of land and real estate to foreign citizens and firms, opening the door for more foreigners to invest in the Turkish real estate market.

The bill was adopted May 3, a few weeks before it came into effect. However, Turkey has continued reciprocity restrictions on countries it is at odds with, like Armenia, North Korea and Syria.

Yet data regarding the nationalities of purchasers provided by the minister has revealed that there have been acquisitions under the names of two Armenian and one North Korean, despite continuing reciprocity restriction on these countries.

Antalya the top destination

Germans continue to lead the list of foreign buyers as they have for years, with 10,067 properties bought by them. Austrians and Russians follow them, the same data set suggests.

Meanwhile, as the most attractive city for foreign buyers, Antalya is the leading province in Turkey, with 3,268 properties sold since then May of 2012.

Despite anticipation of an increase in foreign real estate acquisitions since the enactment of the bill, real estate players are worried the increased tax burden and greater complexity of a new real estate tax system may discourage foreign investors.