Mideast investors 'flock to Turkey amid currency plunge'

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Property investors from across the Middle East region are flocking to Turkey’s real estate market in bid to take advantage of the plunge in its currency Lira, said a report.

Starting from August this year, the Turkish Lira is on the downslide and has slipped against most world currencies, especially the US Dollar, the UK Pound and European Euro, thus making the Turkish property much more attractive as a long-term investment.

This meant that some properties had effectively almost halved in price in hard currency compared to a year ago, said a top Turkish official.

Comparing the periods between January to September 2017 and January to September 2018,

The property unit sales in Turkey has increased by 59 per cent during the nine-month period ending on September 30, compared to the same period last year.

The transaction grew from 15,382 last year to 24,385 with Arab investors snapping up 47 per cent of the units totalling 11,413 during the period.

More figures from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed the Iraqis were number one on the list of nationalities that purchased property units in Turkey, buying a total of 4,866 units between January and September 2018, followed by Iranians, Saudis and Kuwaitis buying 2,197, 1,885 and 1,408 units respectively over the same period.

"Our investor-friendly property and ownership laws combined with the currency situation have turned the Turkish real estate market into a buyers’ market," remarked Salih Ozer, Attaché of Culture and Information, Turkey to the UAE.

“Turkey is a stable country socially, economically and culturally, all of which make Turkey a leading global real estate player,” he stated.

According to him, the property investors were most interested in buying units in the Turkish capital Istanbul, which netted the lion's share of 33 per cent of the total number of units sold in the country. Istanbul was followed by Antalya, Bursa and Ankara, with 23 per cent, 7 per cent and 4.5 per cent units sold respectively, he added.-TradeArabia News Service

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