Turkey Targeting Middle Eastern Investment

Turkey Targeting Middle Eastern InvestmentA Turkish delegation consisting of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as members of the Association of Real Estate Investment Companies travelled to the Middle East last week to target investment interest and in particular to raise awareness of the property investment potential in Turkey.

Just days after Turkey agreed to enter into talks towards EU accession the country received a large investment package from Dubai designed to bolster the property market in Istanbul and now Turkey are seeking further Middle Eastern investment particularly in their coastal resorts where property prices and tourism numbers are booming.

In a meeting in Qatar over the weekend the Turkish delegation made a series of statements to local media covering the main themes of the presentations they had been making all week.  Simply put the presentations were aimed at raising awareness of the appeal of Turkey for both visitors and real estate investors from the Middle East.

The delegation felt that their visit was timely and necessary and highlighted this fact by explaining that despite the fact that overseas investment interest in the Turkish real estate sector is booming with 53,000 housing units having been sold so far in 2005 to overseas buyers, Middle Eastern buyers only account for a tiny percentage of this overseas investment interest.

They further highlighted the fact that Middle Eastern interest in Turkey is so very low when they proved that Middle Eastern visitors only account for five percent of Turkey’s overall tourism numbers.  Indeed, despite that fact that the Turkish tourism board set themselves impressive targets for tourism growth in 2005 and actually met their growth quota way before their deadline and in 2005 tourism numbers to Turkey were up to 22 million, the number of Middle Eastern visitors did not rise above five percent!

The delegation made a series of presentations to promote the appeal of Turkey, highlighting its amazing historical past, its stunning beaches, monuments, mountains and cities and they also made a series of presentations to promote the appeal of the Turkish property market.

For property investors the fact that tourism numbers in Turkey are surging is of instant interest.  There is an increasing target market requiring accommodation immediately which generates impressive rental yields through seasonal short term lets.  Furthermore the demand for housing units across the whole of Turkey annually is up to 500,000 which gives larger investors another platform for growth.  It is predicted that as Turkey moves towards EU accession over the next ten years the amount of investment into Turkey will drive up the economy and will result in high annual growth rates in the as yet highly affordable property sector.

Demand for property for sale and rent in Turkey will also fuel higher prices and drive the market forward giving any real estate investor a long term prospect for growth and yield in Turkey that the delegation believe cannot be matched elsewhere in the world and the case they presented to Middle Eastern investors was so compelling that it should see investment into Turkey surge in the final quarter of 2005 and beyond.

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