Turkey rolls back foreign currency restrictions

In September, in a bid to shore up the falling Turkish Lira, the Turkish government ruled that all property sales, rental contracts and leases must be made in Turkish lira. Now, they've rolled back restrictions, loosening the rules for foreign property buyers.

In September, while it looked like the Turkish economy was in trouble, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that transactions using foreign currency would be curbed in a bid to support the lira. The move concerned some officials: foreign currency had been widely used for rental deals in shopping malls, and of course, in foreign real estate contracts. 

However, after plunging to 6.95 liras to the US dollar in August, the lira has been making a steady comeback to trade at around 5.33 liras against the dollar as of last week. Although it remains around 30 percent weaker against the dollar this year, the government has decided to relax restrictions, welcome news for real estate buyers spending their stronger currencies.

The lifting of restrictions follow's last month's announcement of certain exemptions to the ban, including using foreign currencies in business agreements, export-related contracts, capital market instruments and employment contracts involving foreigners.