The Turkish Parliament has been discussing a new property law, to end reciprocity as a barrier to foreign buyers and allow foreigners to buy more land in Turkey. Well, now the law is passed.
With the approval of new legislation last week regulating the sale of Turkish land to foreigners, tourism centres like Alanya, Didim, Fethiye and Kusadasi have received more attention from prospective buyers, leading experts to predict a rise in property and housing prices as the demand increases. The new law will pave the way for foreign citizens from the Middle East, Gulf countries, the United States and the Far East to purchase real estate in Turkey.
The law, which no longer requires reciprocity in terms of land ownership between countries, makes it much easier for foreign citizens to purchase land in Turkey without having previously signed a reciprocity agreement. Citizens of countries like Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Turkic Republics under the previous legislation were unable to purchase real estate in Turkey because their countries did not have reciprocity agreements with Turkey.
Before last week only foreigners from countries that allowed Turks to buy property could buy property in Turkey, but now foreigners from anywhere can buy in Turkey. They can also buy up to 30 hectares before they need special permission, whereas before the limit was 2.5 hectares.
The law is unsurprisingly
expected to bring thousands more buyers and millions more dollars into the Turkish property market. Although the main currencies will likely be Dirham (UAE), Riyals (Qatar, Saudi Arabia) and other currencies from Arab countries. Many Arab nationalities were prevented from buying by the lack of their countries reciprocity, they are now allowed to buy, and with Turkey’s current popularity in the Arab world, along with the lack of competition due to the lingering effects of the Arab Spring, Arab buyers are expected to pour into Turkey.
No more maps….
The other big changes to the law are the required maps for the military application. Apparently it will be no longer required to make the application to the military as there will be maps given to the local Belediye marking clearly where a foreign person can purchase land. How sensible is that? When we look back at the inconvenience that this has caused over the years for it to change overnight will be unbelievable.
So, what does this all mean?
The simplest way to explain the new law is that basically a foreign person will be treated just like a Turk. You decide today which property you want to buy, shake hands with the owner, sign a contract and hand over a small deposit as a courtesy, tomorrow you go to the deeds office and sign for your new home and once you hand over the balance the place is yours.
What changes will we see?
Slowly but surely things will change in the real estate sector all along the Aegean and Mediterranean Coastlines.
For a number of years there was a distinctive hike with property prices across the country. Recently this has slumped and people who have seen a drop in the value of their property will be happy to hear that there is again an expected rise. Good news for owners who want to sell.
For those of you that want to buy a home in Turkey, now is the time to move before the rush from the Gulf states starts to come as prices are sure to rise because of demand.
Source: Aegean Independent
