An interesting article from Today's Zaman that appears to confirm that there's one price for Turkish people and another for foreigners when purchasing properties. I've highlighted the relevant paragraph and have assumed for the moment that the prices quoted should ALL be in sterling and that the mention of YTL is a typo. It's also interesting that in the last papragraph they mention a 20% markdown on prices NOT the actual 25% markup that these figures seem to reveal.
Property prices fall with cancellation of law on property sales to foreigners
A recent Constitutional Court decision to cancel a law governing the sale of property to foreigners has forced real estate agents to significantly drop prices and to shift their target market to Turkish customers.
Real estate agents are now seeking to sell finished residences to locals at relatively more reasonable prices. They state that what appears to be a crisis generated by the court may well be transformed into an opportunity to help local people acquire homes of their own.
The total number of registered immovable assets sold to foreigners in Turkey is 63,085, while that of building plots is 20,903. In addition, 73,103 foreigners have acquired property in Turkey, most of who are German, British or Greek citizens. The approximate sum foreigners have spent on immovable assets in Turkey in the last five years is $10.4 billion.
According to data released by the Directorate General of Title Deeds and Land Registry, foreigners have purchased a total land area of 38,623,661 square meters. Antalya boasts the highest number of immovable assets sold to foreigners with 19,480. Antalya is followed by Mu&gla with 9,345 and istanbul with 8,187; they are followed by Aydin, Bursa and izmir. Even though Mu&gla comes second with regard to the number of immovable assets sold to foreigners, it is first in terms of the surface area covered by the assets, which is a total of 4,466,782 square meters.
Hüseyin Erkek, deputy president of the Alanya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ALTSO) and president of the group's construction committee, said 69 percent of the immovable assets sold to foreigners in Antalya are in the Alanya district. "There are 17,850 foreigners who own property in Alanya, and Alanya accounts for 24.4 percent of all the property sales to foreigners in Turkey," Erkek noted.
Fethiye Realtors Association President Nevzat Tilkici stated the residences they can no longer sell to foreigners can be sold to local Turkish people, noting that a house with a price range of 100,000 to 150,000 pounds in a foreign sale could be sold to a Turkish citizen for between YTL 80,000 and 120,000. "The Constitutional Court's decision has sharply brought down sales, which had already plummeted by 30 percent. There are many houses constructed particularly for sale to foreigners. Now the real property sector is discussing potential ways to unload these houses. The leaders of the sector want to make the newly constructed homes available for purchase by Turkish citizens in an effort to combat the slowdown in the sector. The legal decision will facilitate local people's efforts to buy their own property," he said.
Tilkici added that the court's decision also played into the hands of their rival countries in the real estate sector.
"The foreigners in our country had already started gravitating toward Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia owing to the uncertainty in the political arena. Now it will be really difficult to convince them to believe that a new law will be passed or a new regulation will be made [regarding property sales to foreigners]," said Tilkici.
Ziya Ercan, the deputy president of the Federation of All Real Property Consultants and the president of the Mu&gla Real Property Consultants Association, stressed that the cancellation of the government regulation by the Constitutional Court caused property prices to drop by about 15 percent.
Villa prices in the center of Fethiye and the Çalis, Üzümlü and Hisarönü districts range between 40,000 and 120,000 pounds. In an example of the decline in prices, a villa up for sale in Çalis at 50,000 pounds is now being sold at 40,000 pounds, which amounts to a 20 percent drop in price.
