Foreign investment important to turkey in 2015

Antalya, the most popular area of Turkey for foreign property buyers Photo: Zolakoma

Turkey has enjoyed a strong 2014, with foreign demand driving much of activity within the country's property market.

Property prices have shown steady increases, with Turkey recording the highest house price growth of all G20 Member Countries between Q2 2013 and Q2 2014, according to Knight Frank. That growth has continued in the second half of the year, according to Turkey’s Reidin-GYODER New House Price index, which showed a month-on-month rise of 1.33 per cent in October and a year-on-year hike of 7.3 per cent.

Revenue generated by tourism in Turkey hit a new record for the January to September period this year, generating $26.6 billion, according to TurkStat. The country welcomed more than 30 million visitors during this period, representing a 6.1 per cent increase over the same period last year.

With record levels of tourism and healthy economic conditions, Spot Blue International Property forecasts another year of growth in the coming 12 months, with foreign investment a key driver.

Property sales to foreigners in the first 10 months of 2014 surged 66 per cent year-on-year to a total of 15,417, according to the Turkish Statistical Agency.

"This rise in foreign interest is especially noteworthy," says Spot Blue director Julian Walker, "as overall sales in Turkey - so including those to Turks – fell slightly for the period compared to 2013."

On ther other hand, by the end of September, the number of foreign purchases in Turkey had already exceeded the total for the whole of 2013.

"This shows how important the foreign market is becoming to Turkey and will continue to be in 2015," adds Walker.