Dubai's Propertyfinder invests in Turkish portal

Propertyfinder Group, the Dubai-based portal offering property listings in seven different Middle Eastern and North African markets, on Tuesday announced it has bought a minority stake in Turkish property listings site Zingat.

The company has bought a 16.95 percent stake in Zingat, and Propertyfinder’s founder and chief executive Michael Lahyani has also joined the company’s board of directors.

Zingat was founded in 2015 by Ahmet Kayhan and Mehmet Erkek, the duo behind the Dubai-based real estate data provider ReidIn.com, alongside with Turkish conglomerate Doğuş Group.

The website was officially launched in January 2016. Since then, the Istanbul-based business has built a network of 18,000 property agents and attracts six million monthly visitors.

Kayhan said: “Michael and his team, with the help of an impressive list of shareholders, built Propertyfinder Group to be the biggest and strongest real estate portal network in the MENA region. Now, proudly, Zingat has become a key part of that network.”

Lahyani said that Propertyfinder Group would work with Zingat to make it “the most prominent property portal in Turkey by sharing our experience and resources”.

“We firmly believe in Turkey and Turkey’s stability.”

Doğuş Group CEO Husnu Akhan said: “Our platform is the first among the Turkish property portals to attract major foreign investment.”

Propertyfinder Group started out as a property listings magazine in Dubai more than 10 years ago, but the site has become one of the biggest online property portals in the Middle East. The company has received several rounds of venture capital funding the most recent being a $20 million investment for a 10 percent stake in the company in January last year by Vostok New Ventures.

Buyers from the Gulf are responsible for about 50 percent of all investment by foreign buyers in Turkish property, according to real estate consultancy firm CBRE. Saudi Arabians are the biggest buyers of Gulf-based Turkish property, and the third-biggest buying group overall. Iraqis buy more Turkish property than any other group of foreign buyers.

Several UAE developers have also ventured into the Turkish market. Emaar opened its Emaar Square Mall shopping centre in Istanbul in April this year. The mall is part of a master development that will also include hotels, offices and more than 1,000 residences.

Deyaar Development has also had business dealings in Turkey, having sold its interest in a joint venture with Alarko Holding in January 2014, and then signing a new agreement with developer Ascioglu Group to jointly develop projects in August 2015.