Page 54 - bne Magazine August 2022

54 I Southeast Europe bne August 2022
Turkey's big Mediterranean attraction of Antalya has long been a holiday favourite with Russians.
Russians and Ukrainians pile into Turkish
real estate market
a clear target for many of the foreign buyers, according to the Association for the Promotion of Turkish Real Estate Abroad (GIGDER).
Arab News reporting indicated that Russians became the third largest real estate buyers in Turkey after Iranians and Iraqis. Since the February invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Russians bought 509 homes in Turkey, with 111 sold to Ukrainians.
Different expectations
Tolga Idikat, CEO of Turkish property website Emlakjet.com, and Sergey Volchenkov, a Ukrainian expert on investments, reflected that Ukrainians and Russians do not have the
same expectations regarding their investments in Turkey. The Russians, it seems, are ready to pay high real estate prices to acquire Turkish property, with the procurement of Turkish citizenship their main motivation. Russian investors redirect assets the sanctioned Russia to Turkey where they can expand financial activities. The Ukrainians are more about looking for short-term deals in Turkey. They expect to return to Ukraine as soon as the conflict is over.
Turkish real estate website Turk.
Estate said it had registered 51%
more searches from Russia and 63% more from Ukrainians since February 2021. Hakan Sabbagh, sales manager for Akzirve, felt Russian demand for Turkish properties would probably increase throughout the coming months. Nihat Tufan, CEO of Rest Property, based in Antalya, Alanya, Bodrum and Istanbul, said:"We expect a 70 percent increase in demand from the Russian Federation."
The most in-demand locations from Russian and Ukrainian real estate customers in Turkey are Antalya, Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and Bursa. Turk.Estate said that in February Russians and Ukrainians bought 25% of properties sold in Antalya, representing an increase of 96% for Russians
and 85% for Ukrainians. The war in Ukraine has simply served drive up the popularity of Antalya with Russians.
Justine Mazonier
The Turkish real estate market has increasingly attracted foreigners in the past 10 years. According to Nordic Monitor, the number of foreigners living in Turkey reached
a peak in 2021 that represented a sevenfold expansion since 2010.
Turkey campaigns to lure foreign investment via property sales to foreigners. This strategy allows the government to meet some economic needs amid rampant inflation and a sluggish economy.
In 2017, Ankara brought in a policy allowing foreigners to obtain a one- year residence permit in return for the purchase of a property (at any price) in Turkey. Also, Turkish citizenship was made available to any foreigner buying real estate priced at one million dollars
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or more. In 2019, the property price qualification level for citizenship was cut to $250,000. Subsequently, looking to regulate growing demand from foreigners for Turkish real estate, in May this year, the level was fixed at
a minimum of $400,000.
The conflict in Ukraine drastically stepped up the trend of foreign buyers snapping up Turkish properties. Last year’s bout of depreciation suffered by the Turkish lira – it lost 44% against
the dollar – made the Turkish real estate market even more attractive for foreigners with hard currency to spare. Russian and Ukrainian foreign nationals feeing impacts of the conflict have looked to secure their assets in Turkey.
The Turkish citizenship available through property investments was