In the 8-year period following the opening of real estate sales to foreigners, 83,815 houses were sold from Istanbul, 51,845 from Antalya, and 11,895 from Bursa.
After the opening of the way for housing sales to foreigners in Turkey, the number of houses bought by foreigners reached 220 thousand 351 in the 2013-2020 period.
According to the information compiled by the AA correspondent from TUIK statistics, there has been a dynamism in the sale of houses to non-Turkish citizens since 2013, following the enactment of the Reciprocity Law, which paved the way for housing sales to foreigners.
While the number of houses sold in the intervening 8 years has exceeded 220 thousand, dynamism has increased in the last 3 years. In this process, the highest figure was seen in 2019 with 45 thousand 483 units, while last year it decreased to 40 thousand 812 with the effect of the epidemic.
The sales figure was 39 thousand 663 in 2018, 22 thousand 234 in 2017, 18 thousand 189 in 2016, 22 thousand 830 in 2015, 18 thousand 959 in 2014, and 12 thousand 181 in 2013.
The number approached 84 thousand units in Istanbul, the leading province in sales to foreigners
During this period, the city with the most housing sales was Istanbul with 83,815 units. Having a 38% share of the total sales, Istanbul never left the leadership it got from Antalya in 2015. The share of the city in total sales rose to 47% last year.
In Antalya, which fell to second place after spending the first 2 years at the top, 51,845 houses were sold to foreigners in 8 years. During the said period, 23.5% of the sales were made from this province.
6 cities were included in the list of the top 10 provinces with the highest residential sales for 8 years in a row. Of these, 11 thousand 895 houses were sold in Bursa, 10 thousand 1 in Ankara, 9 thousand 354 in Yalova, and 6 thousand 352 in Sakarya.
While Aydin, Mugla and Mersin have been on the list seven times in the past period, Trabzon and Samsun have also come to the fore in recent years.
In 6 years, Iraqis bought 33.5 thousand houses, Iranians bought 18.5 thousand houses
According to the sales statistics of 2015-2020 according to their nationalities in TURKSTAT, Iraqis were at the top.
In the last 6 years, Iraqis were the people who bought the most housing in Turkey with 33,544 units, followed by Iranians with 18,464 units, Saudi Arabian citizens with 13,540 units, and Russians with 12,859.
In the said period, Kuwaiti residents bought 10 thousand 898 units, Afghanis 9 thousand 143 units, German citizens 7,209 units, British 6,391 units, and Jordanians 5 thousand 109 units, which were included in the list of the first 20 nations that bought the most housing.
Egyptians who prefer real estate investments in Turkey bought 3,753 units, Kazakhs 3,743 units, Ukrainian citizens 3,711 units, and Swedes 3,384 units.
During this period, citizens of Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, the USA, and China found themselves among the most residential buyers, although they were not included in the list in some years.
“Selling foreign houses generates a serious export income”
Faruk Akbal, Chairman of the Board of Nevita, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that foreigners have been officially able to buy houses in Turkey since 2013 after the reciprocity.
220 thousand 351 units were purchased by foreigners in Turkey so far. Expressing that the residence is very valuable as an export return, Akbal made the following statements:
“As a matter of fact, we sell a house in Turkey to foreigners for approximately ₺1 million. The buyer spends an average of ₺200 thousand on the furniture of the house and lives here for at least 3 months. Therefore, we should not think that we only sold $7 billion worth of houses to foreigners in 2020. At the same time, we mediate the sale of goods worth about ₺9 billion and they continue to pay taxes to our country by living an average of 3 months. In this sense, I would like to emphasize that we keep many sectors alive by selling houses to foreigners.”
“We started to receive serious demands from European, American and Central Asian countries”
Ozyurtlar Holding Chairman Tamer Ozyurt stated that the real estate and construction sector witnessed a steady increase and steadily increasing demand in foreign sales despite the epidemic last year, and said that foreign investors find confidence in the Turkish construction industry.
Ozyurt stated that investors could easily buy residences in Turkey with the digital expansion period and online title deed service initiated in the sector in this period, and made the following evaluations:
“The right of citizenship to the foreigner we offer has become even more functional in this period. Because in the face of the epidemic, there was a need for an isolated and safe life in the world. Last year, we experienced an increase in the number of countries that wanted to buy housing from Turkey. We started to receive serious demands from European, American, Canadian, and Central Asian countries. We expect new initiatives to diversify the use of financial resources in 2021. On the other hand, we should include not only the Middle East but also Europe, Africa, and Central Asian countries in our promotional activities.”
“We expect annual records in sales and revenue”
Helmann Construction Chairman of the Board of Directors Selman Ozgun stated that Turkey’s home sales have numerous features that attract foreigners, and said that especially Istanbul and Antalya stand out in this area.
Expressing that affordable costs, quality residences, the right to citizenship, the availability of people from all cultures, climate features, incentives, high returns, and hospitality are among the features that attract foreigners, Ozgun said, “During the epidemic process, Turkey’s solid and high-quality health infrastructure continued to attract foreigners.”
Ozgun said, “While there were losses of more than 50% in Europe, the decrease in housing sales to foreigners in Turkey was limited to 10%. This is a very important achievement. I think that this success will continue to increase and we will see new records in both sales and annual income. Especially with the loss of the effect of the epidemic, the records will accelerate and Turkey will continue to attract investors from all over the world as it has so far.”
Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz