British buyers top foreign purchasers in Turkey, figures show

British, German and Greeks are the top foreign buyers of property in Turkey, according to official data from the Land Registry Directorate’s Foreigner Affairs Unit.

Foreign buyers from 89 countries have purchased approximately 111,200 properties across Turkey. British people are the most prolific buyers with 35,249 British people owning 24,848 properties, followed by Germany and Greece.

The figures also show that foreigners have bought real estate in 76 of Turkey’s 81 provinces with a total of 12,190 properties in Istanbul being owned by foreign nationals.

Meanwhile, in response to buyer demand and according to recent figures from the ReidIn Turkey Residential Property Price Index, the cost of buying property in Turkey is rising steadily with sale prices having increased by 0.83% across the country with a 1.05% rise in Istanbul alone in July this year.

The research also indicates that buyers are searching for new build properties which have been growing in popularity amongst overseas and second home owners showing a 1.2% increase in new build buyers from June to July, 7.29% higher than the same period last year. There are also vast rental opportunities at large across the country seeing rental prices increase by 0.36%.

‘Turkey is fast becoming an exceptionally popular property choice. At present it is an anchor of stability with a booming economy that is hoped to reach around $2 trillion by 2023,and with the predicted 2.9 million housing units required over the next four years to accommodate the ever growing population,’ said Ray Withers, director of Turkish property investment experts, Property Frontiers.

‘In particular, Istanbul, the pulse of the nation and the western suburbs located around Ataturk International airport such as Beylikduzu, one of the fastest growing areas, presents not only one of the best opportunities for investment but cheaper property price tags than the rest of Europe, making the city even more attractive to potential buy to let investors especially given the increase in rental prices highlighted by the data,’ he added.