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"The Brookings institute this week named Istanbul as the fastest growing city in the world, with GDP per capita growing 5.5% in 2010. This is remarkable and really puts aside any doubts about whether investment in Istanbul property is a good bet.
I say this because of the massive competition Istanbul faced. Right now there is a lot of talk of emerging markets leading the world out of recession; the majority growing strongly while most established markets struggle to clamber out of recession. Amidst this talk the major cities are gaining accolade as the investment centres of the world.
In this Istanbul has fended off competition from Brazil's emerging cities like Natal and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the tier II and III cities of China, India and other hot Asian emerging markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, the major cities of other Latin America's other emerging markets like Columbia, and those of Africa's emerging oil giants like Ghana.
This is an incredible achievement, but it is when added to other factors that Istanbul property really lights a bulb in investors mindsets. The population of Istanbul is growing rapidly, as natural growth is boosted by migrants from throughout Turkey and the world. Liquidity is high in Turkey and mortgage value increased by almost 20% in 2010, with similar growth forecast for 2011.
So we have a population growing rapidly in wealth and numbers, low interest rates and readily available finance, as my teenage cousin would say, "you do the math".
