Iranians purchased 6,425 housing units in Turkey during the first 11 months of 2020 to top the list of foreign buyers of property in Turkey.
Latest figures released by Turkish Statistical Institute indicate a 37.88% growth in the number of housing units purchased by Iranians during the period, compared with the previous year’s 4,660 housing units.
Iranians were followed by Iraqis with 5,950 house purchases over the 11 months under the review. Russians with 2,729, Afghans with 1,705 and German nationals with 1,151 units came after.
As per the figures, 36,819 housing units were sold to foreigners during the period under review, 16,867 of which were located in Istanbul. Antalya, Ankara and Bursa were other popular locations for foreigners planning to own a property in Turkey.
The figures also indicate a sharp increase in the total number of housing units sold to Iranian nationals in November 2020, from 500 last November to 860 housing units this year. However, Iraqis purchased 876 housing units in November 2020, topping other nationals.
Foreigners bought a total of 5,022 homes in Turkey during the 11th month of the year. The number indicates a 24.3% growth compared with the corresponding period of last year.
By implementing a series of policies aimed at attracting foreign direct investment in recent years, Turkey has succeeded in attracting many investors from regional countries, especially from the Middle East.
After the "Turkuaz Kart" (Turquoise Card), a practice similar to the US Green Card application was launched in 2016, it became possible to get Turkish citizenship by investing in the country as of 2017.
Real-estate investment, particularly in megacities, used to be sensible and lucrative. However, it was driven to foreign states as investment risks increased with market volatility.
There are different speculations concerning the reasons behind this investment stagnation and the tendency toward overseas markets. Some experts cite lack of construction plans and failure to control real-estate prices in Iran as two contributing factor.
