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Turkey off-limits? - 12 February 2007

No, this isn’t another story about avian ‘flu, but a proposed effort to limit the numbers of foreigners who buy in each of Turkey’s provinces in the future. While the property market for British buyers has been on the up for the past couple of years, buying property in Turkey has also been a popular investment with a number of other nations for some time, and as a result, the issue of property sales to foreigners has become highly politicized.

British buyers are now the second largest group of foreign property owners in Turkey, with 12,749 properties according to the latest statistics. German owners are the most numerous, accounting for almost a quarter of the property which has been bought by non-Turkish citizens. This is in line with the long-standing relationship and history of migration between Turkey and Germany.

Next on the list are Greek buyers in Turkey, though the vast majority of these people are Greek nations of Turkish origin, and then the Netherlands.

The increasing discussion of the rate of overseas ownership in political circles is a natural consequence of a large increase in foreign investment in property stocks, but it is also perhaps linked to what could be seen as a rising tide of nationalist sentiment in the country as a whole. Some opposition parties have even gone so far as accusing the current government of ‘selling the country to foreigners’.

The current laws in Turkey allow for a maximum of 0.05 per cent of the land in a province to be owned for foreigners. This law, which applies across the whole country, can be amended to include regional limits where additional protection is deemed to be needed. Although the arguments for additional restrictions have to be very carefully assessed, aspects such as irrigation, water supply, power generation and environmental concerns weigh heavily in favour of further protection. Of course, there are clusters of increased density of foreign owners, and it is more likely that restrictions, if they come, will be in these areas.

At the same time, for buyers who would like to get into the property market in Turkey, overseas property company Parador Properties has launched a new website aimed at showing properties that can be bought for a relatively small amount. The new site www.from55k.co.uk is aimed at showcasing how much can be bought in Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal and Crete.

 

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