A Property Buyers Guide to Turkey

A Property Buyers Guide to Turkey

About This Guide

Having landed on this page, many of you will have heard, felt and possibly even seen it; that is the buzz currently growing behind the Turkish property market. So, you want to know more about Turkey from a general standpoint, before refining your search to a region and then to the property that is right for you.

Quite right and you are certainly in the right place. The three things most buyers want to know about are the economy, the currency and tourism, all of which we have covered below, if you require any further information on Turkey please do not hesitate to call +90.242.528 76 41, or email info@newhomeinturkey.com. And when you choose a region, you will find more great information on our region pages, all easily findable in the main navigation area towards the top of the site.

The Turkish Economy

Again, as most of you will know the Turkish economy is currently performing rather well. The country emerged from recession in the final quarter of last year with a growth of 6%, and the projections for the first quarter of this year are into double digits.

Before that things were not so rosy. The Turkish recession hit hard and crippled the economy for nearly a year -- the recession started in the final quarter of 2008. According to Turkstat, Turkish GDP shrunk by 4.7% during 2009.

The Turkish economy has been able to recover so strongly because it was in a unique position, but not through good fortune or management. The Turkish economy suffered a crippling crash in 2001, and damage to the banking sector during that crash, led to Turkey implementing many of the banking reforms seen in countries around the world during the recent global event.

This meant that the Turkish banks were insulated from this crisis, and there were no costly bail-outs. Because the banks were in good (or certainly better) shape credit flows remained loose. This meant less business collapsing because of lack of credit, and more credit now for businesses to invest and capitalise fully on increasing global demand as the world recovers.

One of the major problems faced by the Turkish economy is unemployment, which is currently running at 12-14%. Not that this is particularly a concern for overseas property buyers per se, but this guide wouldn't be complete if the problem wasn't raised. In any case the best way to beat unemployment is economic growth, and the Turkish economy looks set to see plenty of that.

Currency: The Turkish Lira

The Turkish Lira has been running very strong lately, but a positive GDP growth for the UK released recently put a dent in that -- even when the Lira is at maximum strength you still get far more lira than Euros for your pound. The current exchange rate is 1.00GBP/2.35TYR. When the Lira runs strong this will drop to 1.00GBP/2.30TYR, but when Sterling is strong it will be 1.00GBP/2.40TYR. However, Sterling recently enjoyed a massive run and went up to being worth 2.52TYR.

Because of the collapse in 2001 and reforms made, the Turkish Lira is currently one of the safest currencies in the world, owing to stringent management of currency reserves by the country's banking system.

Tourism

According to Turkstat data Turkey receives over 1 million visitors per month in low season, and up to and over 3 million in high season. Take this year's data for example: when Turkstat recorded over 1,133,000 visitors in January, over 1,105,000 visitors in February, over 1,513,000 tourists in March, over 1,875,000 tourists in April, over 2,952,000 tourists in May, and over 3,545,000 in June. Tourism is also growing this year, with visitor numbers up by over 100,000 in the first quarter, and over 600,000 in the second quarter compared to last year's figures.