Foreigners Prefer Turkey’s Coastline for Real Estate

With the arrival of the summer months, the demand for summer residences in Turkey started to increase. Neva Prestij Yapı Chairman of the Board of Directors Mehmet Öztürk stated that among the reasons for the increase in demand for summer residences by domestic and foreign investors in the real estate market is Turkey’s progress towards becoming both a tourism and a commercial center in the world, “Foreigners have discovered the coastal areas of Turkey. There are summer houses from 1 million 750 thousand liras to 30 million liras and they are in demand from every country according to every budget. Currently, the construction and real estate sector supports summer sales with doping effect. Especially in Antalya, İzmir and Ayvalık coastline, the interest of foreigners in real estate is increasing day by day.”

According to the housing sales data of the Turkish Statistical Institute for June 2022, 150 thousand 509 houses were sold in Turkey in June alone. Emphasizing that the demand for summer houses will continue to increase in the light of these data, Öztürk said, “There is excessive demand for summer houses at the moment. After the Ukraine-Russia war, both Ukrainian citizens and Russian citizens preferred our country as a safe port. We foresee that this demand will continue even if the war is over, and we are currently producing nearly 5 thousand houses in regions such as Amasra, Antalya, İzmir, Seferihisar, Alaçatı, Ayvalık, Istanbul and Ankara.”

“WE BELIEVE THAT SUMMER HOUSING DEMANDS WILL CONTINUE FOR AT LEAST ONE TWO YEARS”

 

Stating that the effect of the pandemic on the residences still continues, Öztürk said, “There is demand from Ukrainian and Russian citizens in our Antalya, Bodrum and İzmir regions, as well as citizens from Arab countries and Turkic geographies such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Apart from that, the search for local summer houses in places such as Ayvalık, Amasra and some parts of İzmir continues because the effects of the pandemic are still not over. Because it continues to decrease or increase, people still want to have a small house to escape from the big cities. That’s why we think that the summer demands will continue for at least one or two more years.”

 

Underlining that they expect price increases to continue along with the increase in demand for houses, Öztürk continued his words as follows:

 

“At the moment, foreigners cannot buy a summer house in other countries at the prices in our country, due to the value of foreign currency. Therefore, not all construction companies are able to produce flats for foreign customers’ sales. This is not only for summer residences, but also for normal residences. So there is an excessive demand for housing. We are currently working with 51 real estate agencies abroad. The houses we produce in Turkey are marketed in 51 countries. And of course, when they get the title deed here, they get Turkish citizenship. When he gets this citizenship, because it is more comfortable to go to Europe and America with a Turkish passport, there is an increase in demand.”

 

“WE STARTED SUMMER HOUSING PROJECTS ALL OVER TURKEY”

 

About the increase in demand of foreign customers, Öztürk said, “While the sales to foreign customers, apart from our domestic customers, were at the level of 2 thousand, they have now increased to 50 thousand. We started summer housing projects all over Turkey, thinking that this would exceed 100 thousand. Even the regions preferred by locals such as Amasra, İzmir Seferihisar and Alaçatı, which were not requested by foreigners before, are being discovered by foreigners. We also started investments in these regions. For now, we are producing 5 thousand houses as summer houses. In the following periods, we aim to reach 20 thousand,” he said.

“NO HOUSE FOR SALE AND RENTAL IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION CANNOT BE FOUND”

 

Emphasizing that the demand from these citizens has increased as a result of the Ukraine-Russia war, Öztürk said, “If we consider the Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, there are direct flights from all airports of Ukraine and Russia, especially in the Antalya port in the Mediterranean region, every year. Ukrainian and Russian customers, whose 2 thousand residences were sold, have now reached 50 thousand residences. Currently, there are no houses for sale or rent in the Mediterranean region. It created an extreme explosion. After coming here, Ukrainian and Russian citizens believe that they can live here and look for workplaces where they are. In other words, whatever they are doing there, they are trying to continue the work here. That’s why I think that this situation will affect the sales of the shops after this time,” he said.

 

Öztürk made the following statements regarding the recent increase in foreign investors in Turkey:

 

“In many big cities in the world, in the capitals of almost all countries or in tourism cities, half of the population consists of foreign citizens. We cannot accept it at the moment, but Turkey is on its way to becoming a tourism and trade center in the world. That’s why I think this demand will continue for many years. People who buy a house here are thinking about what business I can do in Turkey as an investor, can I move my factory in other countries here, and they look for it. I think this will contribute a lot to Turkey commercially in the long run.”