How to Buy Property in Turkey Without Being Ripped Off
Published on Thursday, October 29th, 2009
The British pound has held fairly firm in the face of the Turkish currency, the lira, and so property in Turkey remains cheap – relatively speaking – for Britons seeking a property abroad. Pushing up the appeal of Turkish property even more is the fact that the nation is driving ahead with the promotion and extension of its tourism sector, making parts of the country very popular with property investors and speculators.
However, the Turkish property industry is often compared with the Spanish industry 20 – 25 years ago when ripping off Britons was sport, and those who triumphed and actually managed to secure a quality home for their hard earned cash were the lucky few!
In this report we’re not going to beat about the bush of political correctness, we’re going to get right to the heart of the matter and discuss how you can buy property in Turkey without being ripped off. Note, we’re not suggesting that ripping off property hunters is an exclusive sport of the Turks, it goes on everywhere – even under our noses onshore in the UK. So, this is not a racist rant, it’s a tirade against those who seek to destroy the dreams of people who simply want to find their place in the sun.
The property market in Istanbul has weathered the global financial storm well. It has remained robust in pricing terms with minimal depreciation in underlying asking prices seen, yet there is plenty of room for negotiation for buyers who have the cash to negotiate with! What’s more, there is potentially plenty of room for profit over the medium to long-term as Istanbul raises not only its international profile, but its presence on the global business stage.
We have recently touched on ways to sell your home abroad without the requirement of an estate agent, looking at alternative methods for marketing your property from using your own website to literally getting out on the street and handing out fliers about your home for sale. This is because many people resent the commission they have to pay if they employ an estate agent.
It’s hard to know when one nation’s property market has fallen out of favour these days as the global financial crisis envelopes country after country and apparently leaves no nation’s economy untarnished. So is property in Turkey still popular or has the market boomed and gone bust?
In Turkey there are rules that govern who can and who cannot buy freehold property. The rules are based on the principle of reciprocity – i.e., if a foreign national wants to buy a home in Turkey, and if that individual’s home nation has rules in place that would allow a Turk to buy property in that country, then in theory the foreign national will be able to buy a 
In a detailed survey into the hidden costs of buying property abroad produced by Which?, the British independent advice experts, it has been revealed that there is a huge discrepancy between fees and charges assigned to the buyer of a home abroad depending on where they choose to purchase.
We’ve been misquoted again - it keeps happening - apparently we have ‘stated’ that now is quite possibly the best time ever to invest in property in Turkey. The implication in the entire article in which we were grossly misrepresented – which of course appeared on a property investment website – was that we were not only advocating investors look at Turkey, but that they buy, buy, buy on our advice and without looking back.
