Data cites increase of 86% over corresponding period last year

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 15: At the beginning of 2021, the Turkish real estate market witnessed a hectic activity in terms of rents, buying and selling, and real estate prices rose by 80% until the end of last August, and which touched 100% in some areas of Istanbul, informed real estate sources told Al-Rai daily. According to data issued by the Turkish Statistical Institute, Kuwaitis bought 873 apartments in Turkey at the beginning of the year until the end of last August, an increase of 86 percent over the corresponding period last year.

Kuwaitis ranked first in the Gulf region in the number of properties purchased, and maintained their rank globally in seventh place, while Iraq ranked first in the world with the number of purchases estimated at 4,631 apartments, followed by Iran with 4,600 apartments, then Russia with 2,575, Afghanistan with 1,819, Germany with 1,189 apartments and Kazakhstan 1129. It is remarkable to see new nationalities entering the investment market in Turkey more than before, such as Kazakhstan, Germany, Azerbaijan and the United States of America, at a time when other Arab countries maintained their strong positions and purchase rates in the middle of the list, such as Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, and the Sudan.

This comes because the purpose of most buyers is to acquire the Turkish citizenship, unlike Kuwaitis who buy for the purpose of housing and investment. It is remarkable to see Saudi Arabia, which was almost permanently among the top ten in the ranking of the most nationalities buying real estate in Turkey, is no longer on the current list issued by the Statistics Institute. For his part, the owner of the “Magnet” company for studies and consulting, Maher Ayoubi, said that the great demand for Turkish real estate is due to several reasons, the most important of which is that the outbreak of Covid-19 has affected a number of new projects being offered by Turkish contractors, as construction became limited and sometimes the contractors who managed the crisis well, maintained their presence in the markets, or who have strong and distinctive projects and are originally of good reputation.

He added that the other reason is the excessive demand of foreigners to buy from Turkish companies, to obtain a property through which they can apply for Turkish citizenship, with the emergence of unconfirmed news from official sources that the amount that entitles its owner to obtain Turkish citizenship in exchange for buying a property will change from $250,000 to $350,000, which positively affected the market and made supply much less than demand. He indicated that because of this, project prices have increased on a monthly basis by no less than 10 to 15 percent, noting that the increase in rents is primarily due to the high rate of inflation in the Turkish economy and the fall of the lira against the dollar.

For his part, the owner of the “Atish Yapi” construction company in the Turkish city of Bursa, Ahmed Atish, said that the demand for Kuwaitis to buy this year is very large, as purchases were made, estimated at double the purchases for the same period last year, pointing out that they bought about 873 apartments between last January and August. He explained that the office of “Atish Yapi” in Kuwait has so far completed about 90 sales of its projects in general and the “Downtown” project in particular since the beginning of the year, indicating that the demand for the last project rose due to its near completion, so that Kuwaitis bought about 280 units in the project, He considered this activity as “the second home for Kuwaitis in Turkey.” He pointed out Istanbul obtained the largest share in the number of purchases by foreigners for this year, by more than 60 percent, with 14,788 apartments sold, followed by Antalya in second place with 5,897 apartments, Ankara with 1,988, Mersin with 1,410, Yalova with 939, and Bursa 889.