August 6th 2012 will be forever remembered by all who love Turkish property, it may well be a “where were you when…” day for some, but either way it was a hugely important day for Turkish property.
Article written by Julian Walker of Spot Blue
Before August 6th Turkish property law allowed only nationals from countries where Turks could buy, to buy property in Turkey, because of what is called a reciprocity clause. Unfortunately, this excluded nationals from many countries, including the Arab states with all their wealth, all their love for Turkey and ultimately, their demand to buy Turkish property by the bucket load.
At the start of this year a bill was drafted to remove reciprocity as a hurdle to those foreign nationals, and the bill was pushed through parliament and passed a few weeks ago. However, we learned that in fact, the bill was not to be a blanket end to reciprocity, but rather it would be a precursor for an expanded list of nationalities that would be allowed to buy property in Turkey, and that we would have to wait on this amended list before any new foreigners would be allowed to buy.
The new list came into effect on August 6th and there is already talk of the first sales going ahead. As far as I am aware, the amended list has not yet been made public but it is widely expected to contain the gulf Arab states.
It has been widely predicted that the incoming Arab buyers will add 2 billion USD in revenue to an already bustling trade. I guess now we will finally get a chance to find out just how much pent up demand for Turkish property there is in the gulf and Arab states of the world. The bill has already had a positive effect on the market, because foreign buyers purchased a record-breaking amount of property in Turkey in May, as European investors bought up properties to resell to the newly-allowed nationalities.
Rightmove Overseas Premier Partner, Spot Blue, specialise in Turkish properties. View their listings on Rightmove Overseas here or contact them for more information.
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