Baku. 24 October. REPORT.AZ/ Turkish expert on real estate market Kaan Borucaoglu gave interview to Report:
- What can you say about the interest in the real estate market amid sharp depreciation of Turkish currency?
- Following depreciation of Turkish lira (TRY) against other currencies, the demand of investors from the Gulf countries in real estate market doubled. This has a positive impact on the Turkish economy. Construction companies are benefiting from this opportunity. It would be right to say that Turkey, which is going through a difficult economic period, has slightly revived taking advantage of the situation. By official statistics, Turkey’s revenues from the sale of real estate during the past two months exceeded $3 billion.
- There were plans to carry out several works, as well as accelerate documentation within the new economic program. Have initial steps been taken?
- Firstly, Turkey reduced requirement for buying property to get Turkish citizenship from $1 million to $250,000. Foreigners can already obtain citizenship by buying property in Turkey in a short period. I assess it as a great step for economic revival. As for documentation, this is too easy. I don’t think there is a need for an extra innovation for this.
- How active are Azerbaijani citizens in Turkey’s real estate market?
- I think this period is favorable for Azerbaijani investors and they evaluate it. The rise in manat exchange rate against TRY prompted an increase in the number of Azerbaijanis willing to buy property in Turkey. Azerbaijanis now can pay AZN 100,000 for a house, while they were paying AZN 185,000 before.
To my mind, they should evaluate this opportunity well because economic fluctuations are not long-term. There won’t be such opportunities when TRY rate increases after a month. Azerbaijani families, whose children study in Turkey, can benefit from this opportunity. Firms offer various campaigns. There are houses without interest rates for 24-36 months. As for prices, they declined before depreciation of TRY. This process accelerated in this period. Along with this, carrying out of the sales in TRY is an advantage too. Not only in Turkey, but global economic fluctuation caused decline in prices in Turkey. However, I think that the prices will go up by 15-20% at the end of this year. Azerbaijani investors should evaluate the period particularly up to the end of this month well. Indicators of the past two months show that sales have increased. This means that foreign investors realize that the prices will rise at the end of this year. The number of houses sold in Istanbul increased by 14.5% to 15,262 in 2018. Istanbul is followed by Ankara (9,291 houses, +8.8%) and Izmir (5,064 houses, +4.8%).
- Do you think there many people selling houses or buying?
- It’s time to buy a house in Turkey. Of course, there are many people willing to buy houses. Along with depreciation of TRY, decline in prices on houses played an important role in this issue.
Vusala Abbasova