Turkey property news: foreigners at an all-time high

25,000 Bodrum homes need renovation - Mayor

Around 25,000 houses in Bodrum are poor quality and need immediate renovation, says Bodrum’s mayor.

Mehmet Kocadon says Bodrum is too important a tourist destination to neglect homes with poor quality build that need attention. The homes in question, built between 1983 and 1993, have deteriorated due to the poor quality of concrete used in their construction.

Bodrum contributes US$2 to Turkey’s economy each year, said Kocadon, and this figure coule easily grow to $7-8 billion in the next five years, so it is crucial that Bodrum’s homes are top quality.

Investments in tourism and construction by some of Turkey’s leading holding companies, and international hotel brands like Kempinsky and Swissotel make up the region’s biggest spends, adding up to $35 billion.

Kocadon added that Bodrum continues to grow - not just as a tourist destination.  "We are making efforts to make Bodrum a center of arts and congresses," he said, adding that they will establish a new congress center on a 20-hectare area with an investment worth $60 million.

Property sales hit record levels

Property sales to foreigners hit record high levels in May. The sale of 1982 units marked a staggering 21.3 per cent increase over May 2014.

The data, released by the Turkish Statistics Agency, showed Istanbul to be out in front, with 636 units sold to foreigners, followed by Antalya with 546 and Bursa with 128.

The largest proportional increase in property sales to foreign buyers was in Trabazon, where 90 properties were sold. This marks a 125 per cent increase for the Black Sea province over the same time last year.

The first five months of 2015 have seen the sale of more than 8000 properties to foreign buyers, a 19 per cent increase over the same period in 2014. Of these, 2611 were sold in Istanbul, 2252 in Antalya and 551 in Bursa, according to the data.

In 2014 18,959 properties in Turkey were sold to foreigners. Antalya was top favourite, followed by Istanbul. Altogether, foreign buyers spent $4.32 billion on property in Turkey - an all-time high.

Countrywide, property sales jumped by 19.4 per cent in May against the same month in 2014, while mortgaged home sales rose by 34.7 per cent.

Antalya and Mugla top foreign real estate ownership

The southern holiday resort of Antalya is the top property destination for foreign buyers, with 56,000 foreigners having bought property there. The Mugla region - encompassing Bodrum and Fethiye - is the runner up with 22,892 homes owned by foreigners.

Istanbul comes in fourth, with 19,217. UK citizens are the biggest purchasers, owning 36,478 properties in Istanbul, with Russians coming in at second place with 13,590.

Alanya foreigners at all-time high

The number of foreigners living in Alanya, in the Antalya province, has increased by 7.3 per cent from the previous year to 34,532, according to official data.

Russians are first for home ownership in Alanya, with 5712 owning property, followed by Norwegians, who own 5616 properties. Germans own 4337.

“We had concerns that there might be a slowdown in the property acquisition of Russians due to the economic problems in Russia, but we have not seen any decrease. Around a quarter of the sold properties were bought by Russians,” said Alanya District Governor Hasan Tanriseven.

Another factor is local construction companies’ participation in promotional events abroad, particularly in the Middle East. As a result, the number of homes in Antalya being bought by Arabs is on the rise.