Wednesday 16 April 2008

Turkish property sales to foreigners temporarily halted

Hurriyet English with wires, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 21:54

Turkish property sales to foreigners is to be temporarily halted from Wednesday, declared a Ministry of Public Works and Settlement inline with a Constitutional Court ruling three months ago. A new regulation was delivered to the Board of Ministers for approval. (UPDATED)


A new regulation regarding the sale of Turkish property to foreigners was delivered to the Board of Ministers for approval on Wednesday.

According to information obtained from ministry's officials, a circular letter on Tuesday was sent to all land registry offices indicating the end of the sale of real estate to foreigners.

The related verdict of the Constitutional Court will come into effect from Wednesday.

The law does not restrict foreigners who already own property in Turkey from selling it to Turkish Citizens.

A total of 63,085 properties have so far been sold to 73,103 foreigners, with German, British, and Greek citizens being the leading purchasers of Turkish property.

Foreign investors’ annual real estate purchases amounted to $3 billion for the past three years, accounting for about 8.5% of the current account deficit.

"We believe that the government will take this issue seriously and is likely to pass the necesssary legislation through the parliament. However, the timing remains uncertain and the impact on the financing of the current account deficit should be negative in the near term," Raymond James Financial said in a research report on Wednesday.


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