Tourism in Turkey

While Turkey may already be a major player in the tourism market, the Turkish Tourism and Culture office have announced ambitious plans to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Turkish Republic in 2023. Ismet Yilmax, under-secretary to the department of Tourism and Culture believes that the country can increase visitor numbers to more than 50 million a year, and increase tourist related revenues to more than $50 billion a year!


On the face of it, these targets are very ambitious and while not to say impossible, there will be much work to be done in the country before they can even accommodate that number of visitors, never mind attract them to the country. There is no doubt that Turkey is a very popular destination for tourists from all over the world, but at this moment in time the industry is very much focused on the so called “sand and sea” beach resorts. While these will always be very important elements of any tourist industry, there will need to be changes to attract the numbers being mentioned. Turkey plans to up the numbers of people working in tourism to 5 million and extend its fleet by 500 planes.

The Tourism and Culture office believe that the country needs to bring other areas of the tourism industry to the fore, including more concentration on the history of Turkey, the surrounding areas and culture and diversification in areas such as medical tourism in which it is already making headway. There are also ambitious plans to create a number of exclusive resort areas which they believe will attract the more wealthy tourists to the country. In order to expand Turkey’s tourism reach it is believed the country needs 10 new conference centres, 40 new marinas and 25 new cruise ports. So what does this mean for the property industry in Turkey?

Apart from the fact that there will be an increased bed capacity requirement in the form of many more hotels and other accommodation throughout in the country, if they are able to get anywhere near the figures mentioned, this could easily prompt a property boom in the country with greater demand placed on existing holiday homes already built in key tourist resorts. While the plans are still at an early stage, and somewhat ambitious, Turkey could be a very interesting property market to watch over the next few years.
http://www.nubricks.com/archives/536/turkey-tourism-future-plans/#more-536

Turkish homes

A few years ago talk of a foreign property-buying boom in Turkey would likely have ended with the speaker walking shame-facedly into the gloom, hoots of derision ringing in his ears: far from being a flourishing market, as far as overseas buyers were concerned Turkey was a closed shop, with non-Turkish nationals facing numerous impediments to freehold ownership in the country. Yet in recent times - specifically, since July 2003 when decades-old legislation regulating foreign ownership was amended in order to spur on foreign investment in Turkey - the country has burst onto the international property stage as one of the most important, and fastest-growing emerging markets in Europe. Now, with thousands of Britons, Irish, Germans, Dutch and Danes each year buying in the country's burgeoning hotspots, and with the domestic market being dragged upwards on the coat-tails of the foreign-buying boom, it is the far-sighted investors who plunged early into Turkish property bath who are having the last and longest laugh.

Turkey shares with many other current emerging markets the golden twin benefits of good affordability and high capital appreciation, and as such has been drawing an increasing number of investor-buyers. Nevertheless, it's also an excellent destination for more lifestyle-oriented buyers - unlike certain other investor hotspots - and the ongoing boom is taking place alongside, and in a synergetic relationship with, a boom in Turkey's tourism industry. While newspaper headlines touting Turkey as "the next Spain" may be wide of the mark, there's no doubt that the potential growth of the country's property market will be assisted immeasurably by the increased investment and brand awareness being generated by tourism much as the protracted booms on Spain's Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca were initiated by the eruption of mass tourism to those coasts in the 1970s and 1980s.

One look at Turkey in an atlas and it's easy to see the similarities with Spain and the great advantages that Turkey enjoys when it comes to tourism. The majority of Turkey's border is coastline - some 7,200 kilometres of shoreline, against which lap a number of different bodies of water (the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black seas, and the Sea of Marmara between the Bosphorus and the Dardenelles), already established as significant tourist destinations. While Turkey's climate may not be as welcoming all year round as is that of southern Spain, particularly on the Black Sea coast, its Mediterranean and Aegean resorts offer solidly reliable, and at times sizzling, summer seasons, and it's no surprise that the majority of foreign buyers are purchasing in these areas: the vast majority of acquisitions by foreigners are being made in the stretch of coast from the Dardanelles round to the area around Alanya, north of the western tip of Cyprus.

Most of these purchases have thus far been made in one or other of a relatively small number of hotspot resorts, among which Alanya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Didim, Fethiye and Kusadasi feature most prominently. This isn't because other stretches of coastline are unattractive or in other ways unsuitable; it's just that Turkey is years behind more popular Western Mediterranean destinations in terms of infrastructure and, for the moment at least, the comparatively small number of buyers moving into the country are, in general, preferring destinations that already have good tourism set-ups, are well served by air routes (the budget travel boom has been a huge boon to Turkish tourism and property) and already have foreign communities of significance.

These established destinations, serving a healthily growing number of international visitors drawn to their traditional sun, sea and sand assets (as well as to the many sites of huge historical interest along Turkey's coastline and throughout its interior) provide investors with an appetising pool of potential short-term rental tenants, as well as with a smaller (but, again, growing) pool of longer-term residents.

However, buyers looking for rental yields should be aware that short-term rents are by no means the money-spinners in Turkey that they were for years in, say, Spain or Portugal. Firstly, the tourist season on Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts is shorter than in the Western Mediterranean (and much shorter on the Black Sea) thanks to the less mild climate; the main season is between June and early September (and many coastal resorts more or less shut down between October and April), and even if one takes a more generous spread it's easy to see the difficulties involved in generating a year's worth of rental income in only three or four months. Secondly, because Turkish tourism is seen by many as a more affordable alternative to established Western destinations, market forces mean that rents are comparatively low, and while property values are also low comparatively, they have increased at a much faster rate than have the costs of, say, hotel accommodation and dining out, meaning that annual yields as a percentage of a home's value remain low to middling: perhaps three to six per cent over the year in the more popular hotspots, before deductions for costs and tax.

The bottom line is that while rental returns are obviously a tasty incentive, and should become more so as time goes by, they are more often than not insufficient to cover mortgage repayments in their entirety - certainly once payments to management and marketing companies have been taken into consideration. This is only a rule of thumb, and a number of guaranteed rental schemes (or, more promisingly in the long term, tie-ins with major tour operators providing a constant stream of tenants) have been put in place by developers that do indeed cover mortgage payments, at least for the first couple of years; nevertheless, in general, investors would be looking to capital appreciation to provide the profits from their endeavours and may have to top up mortgage repayments from reserve capital until resale. (This is less the case in Istanbul and Ankara, where yields for decent apartments and single-family homes are currently around ten per cent, and it is expected that the next few years will see a large and very profitable buy-to-let boom in Turkey's major cities.)

For the pure lifestyle buyer, of course, these may well be minor considerations. Those looking just for a holiday home will find a substantial portfolio of high-quality villas and apartments in many key locations, with prices (not to mention the cost of living) low compared with most of the rest of coastal Europe. In terms of what's available it's very much a case of horses for courses: buyers with lower budgets might look at mass-tourism hotspots Antalya or Alanya where compact apartments are available for as little as £15,000, while more affluent buyers might turn to the Bodrum Peninsula, and Bodrum (increasingly touted as the "Marbella of Turkey") in particular, where a luxury three-bedroom villa might set one back £250,000 to £300,000 - much less than the cost of an equivalent home in the aforementioned glitzy Spanish resort.

Of course, comparisons with Spain can be invidious for both countries; while many Turkish destinations are beautiful, thriving and profitable, the country doesn't have the solid infrastructure that has turned southern Spain into such a cosmopolitan destination; likewise, Spain can't hope to compete with Turkey on price, for that reason among many others. But buyers looking for a high-quality lifestyle overseas could do much worse than to consider Turkey. The culture is fascinating; the cuisine is superb; the people are welcoming and intensely proud of their country's achievements; and much of the coast is simply stunning. Throw double-figure capital growth into the equation and you've got the foundations for what could be a long and spectacular property boom. The new Spain it's not: it's the new Turkey, and that's already proved more than enough for the growing number of Brits choosing to set up home overseas in one of the most vibrant buying destinations on the planet.

Timeshare in Turkey

A real estate project after the “Spanish model” will be realized in Turkey, upon the request of Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan, who did extensive research in Spain.

The Ministry of Finance and the Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ) will undertake the project together. A number of villas and holiday resorts will be constructed for foreign citizens on immovable property, according to the protocol signed by Unakıtan and TOKİ Chairman Erdoğan Bayraktar. The National Real Estate Head Office handed this immovable property over to TOKİ free of charge through the “income distribution in return for land” method.

The project includes coastline areas from Çanakkale, in northwestern Turkey, to Mersin, in the south, and districts with thermal baths. TOKİ will start to market the villas abroad when construction begins. The villas will be sold as direct property or timeshares and owners will not be allowed to rent them out. Sales revenue from these villas will be given to TOKİ, together with the finance share of 50 percent, which will enter the TOKİ account within 15 days.

The villa cities and the holiday resorts to be constructed in Antalya, Muğla, Aydın, Fethiye and Mersin on the Turkish Riviera will be a few storeys tall. The project includes the construction of tennis and golf courts, green spaces, walking paths, medical centers, shopping centers and other social facilities. Titleholders will be offered the 5-star hotel included in the project, the management of which will rest in the private sector.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=99325

Oracle Boss optimistic over Turkey

Oracle boss confident in Turkish economy
Jeff Henley, the executive board chairman of Oracle, has expressed confidence in Turkey's economy, saying that his company is certain the country will see continued growth.





Speaking at Oracle's AppsDay Symposium on Wednesday in İstanbul -- attended by about 1,000 business representatives -- Henley indicated that Oracle continually invests in improving the capabilities of business applications.
"Turkey has been one of the most rapidly growing economies in recent years, and Turkish companies increase their internal investments when they come to realize this. At Oracle, we fully believe that Turkey's dynamic growth will continue," Henley said, according to a written statement from Oracle on his speech at the symposium.

Mehmet Ali Berkman, executive board chairman of Akkök Holding, noted at the symposium that thanks to Oracle's solutions, they can manage their entire IT infrastructure from a central location. He recommended that company executives invest in information technology and business applications as such investments would quickly pay off.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=136460

buy property in Turkey

Buying property in Turkey


For some years, Turkey’s real estate market has been attracting an increasing number of foreigners looking for property -- for investment, rental, holiday homes, retirement or simply starting a life here.





In the five-year period between 2003 and 2007 the total value of real estate purchases by foreigners was approximately $10 billion -- and the level of investment is still rising, according to recent figures.
Do you toy with the idea of buying property in Turkey? To prevent you from potential mistakes and obstacles that sometimes emerge during the process of purchasing property, this week Today’s Zaman provides you with some useful information for finding and purchasing the right property.

According to data from the Turkish Land Registry Directorate (TKM), people from 70 nationalities have purchased fixed properties - such as land and houses -- in Turkey. These people have primarily included citizens of Germany, the US, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. Foreigners seem to prefer İstanbul and Antalya, as half of the real estate purchases by foreigners are in these two cities. These cities are followed by Bursa, İzmir, Muğla, Hatay, Aydın and Mersin.

Why Turkey?

There are many factors that make Turkey’s real estate market attractive for foreigners. Real Estate in Turkey, an Internet-based real estate listing for properties in Turkey, says on its Web site, www.realestateinturkey.com, “Every year property prices have been rising but prices for buying property in Turkey are still considerably lower than buying property for sale in other major tourist areas such as Spain and France, making Turkey an ideal overseas property investment.”

Other factors contributing to foreign interest in the Turkish real estate market are, according to the TKM’s report, increasing income levels and positive expectations for real estate prices. In addition, growing economic stability is expected to bring further useful investment to airports, roads, golf courses and marinas. Furthermore, you don’t even have to be that wealthy to invest in Turkish property.

“Turkey’s emerging mortgage market, in particular, is doing well,” says Professor Norbert Walter, chief economist for Deutsche Bank, a large German bank. Walter is an expert on the US subprime crisis, which has been shaking financial markets worldwide since 2007. But Walter also recommends taking macroeconomic factors into account: “Turkey is more fragile than other countries because of its high current account deficit. … Turkey will rely on external help, a move that may become expensive later on,” he says, explaining that this is the reason why investors need to know the “local conditions” of the real estate market very well.

Especially when you are buying property for investment rather than for personal use, your first step should be to check out things like location, quality and surroundings.

Then you have to discuss sale conditions with the owner. Therefore, you should also make sure that any property you purchase has been built properly and that all relevant licenses were obtained before construction. Make especially sure that the construction materials are appropriate and that they will not lead to problems like dampness or lack of ventilation. You should also have the house inspected for earthquake safety.

“Don’t buy from someone in a bar!”

In the online expatriate community www.mymerhaba.com, users discuss finding a reliable real estate agency. They all agree on one principle: “Don’t buy from someone you met in a bar.”

There are plenty of “emlak” Web sites aimed at international buyers offering properties on the Internet. “It’s just a matter of looking,” says one user on the mymerhaba.com forum. “Just make sure that it has all the right certificates,” adds another. Many users recommend talking to foreigners who have experience with buying property in Turkey. They also caution that you should make sure the property you are purchasing really belongs to the “owner.”

When you are purchasing a resale property -- which can be advantageous as such properties usually start at a cheaper price -- take into account that it will probably require you to spend a good sum of money to bring it up to a quality level you would be comfortable living in. With second-hand property, you should also be sure that the water, natural gas, phone and electricity bills of the previous owner have been paid and that there are no other debts connected with the house. New properties, of course, do not suffer from these problems, though their prices can be daunting. Sometimes simple things, like checking the amount of sunshine an apartment gets or meeting with your potential neighbors, will help your decision.

Then there is the question of how to go about starting the actual process of buying property. Which laws and regulations have to been taken into account? The relevant regulation for the acquisition of property by foreign real and legal persons, Article 35 of the Land Registry Law, can be checked on the TKM’s Web site at www.tkm.gov.tr.

It is not compulsory to hire a lawyer to handle the lengthy process of buying property in Turkey. You may plow your way through all the laws and regulations on your own. However, since there are many transactions involved in buying property and some steps are very important, it is strongly recommended that you seek legal and financial advice. Keep in mind also that some special regulations apply when property is purchased for business and investment purposes that are connected to tourism.

A long list of things to do

If you have already decided on a specific property, the next step is to check whether the building already has a tapu (land deed). If it does, make sure that it really belongs to the property you are aiming to buy. If not, you must register the property at the TKM. If you are buying an empty plot of land, make sure that you will be allowed to erect buildings there by the Local Development Plan -- which should be available at the municipality.

You should also keep in mind that there is an annual property tax for private buildings. All properties are subject to re-assessment every four years for taxation purposes, which means that you need official records from the land registry office or, when you are buying for a company, company registration records from the chamber of commerce. Be careful, especially with this step. There is a huge tax evasion problem in the real estate market due to the common strategy of declaring low prices on land deeds. For further information on this topic, see Berk Çektir’s legal column in Today’s Zaman. He has been addressing this issue and offering useful advice about land deeds this week.

If all this is arranged, the foreigner must still prove the transfer of the full purchase price into Turkey to the TKM. In any subsequent sale of the property, the profits can be transferred out of Turkey.

The most complicated step of all this seems to be applying for the tapu, according to discussions in the mymerhaba.com forum. “I have already paid the full amount for a flat in Alanya, but have not got the tapu even after waiting for four months,” worries one user, repeating what seems to be a common theme. But another user says, “When I bought my apartment in Istanbul, I was given the tapu on the same day that I paid for the property. I went to the titles office with the previous owner and he signed it over to me in front of a few officials who made sure that we both understood what we were doing.”

However, to avoid any rude surprises, make sure early on that the property was not built illegally and that the builders are not trying to register the land or building retrospectively. The process of applying for the tapu can take several months, but when you have taken all the necessary precautions, you can sit back and relax during that time, looking forward to your living in your new home.

Cyprus problem?

Turkey, Greece see window of opportunity for Cyprus
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece have said they see an opportunity for progress toward settlement of the Cyprus problem in the wake of elections on the divided Mediterranean island.

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The two ministers were meeting in Ankara on Saturday, two days after Greek Cyprus’ newly elected leader Demitris Christofias said he was likely to meet with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat later in March, the first such meeting on the island in years.
“We think that an important window of opportunity has opened for 2008” concerning the Cyprus issue, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said following the meeting with his Greek counterpart, Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, who was in Ankara to attend an International Women’s Day conference organized by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Christofias, elected on Feb. 24, has pledged to restart reunification talks between the Greek and Turkish communities on the island, whose division remains a hurdle to Turkey’s European Union aspirations. He said the meeting would probably be between March 17 and 24.

Bakoyannis’ comments echoed those of Babacan, as she said, “There is a window of opportunity before us, and it is an opportunity that we can develop by making a contribution.”

The visiting foreign minister also reiterated her country’s support for Turkey’s EU membership bid.

“The day Turkey is a full member of the EU will be a cause for joy for Greece,” she said. “For Greece, this will mean that Turkey has fulfilled the EU’s criteria. And this will bring with it stability and development for the region.”

Cyprus has been divided between a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish north since 1974, when Turkey intervened after an Athens-backed coup by supporters of a union with Greece.

Ankara does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government, which entered the EU in May of 2004 as the official representative for the entire island.

Stalled efforts to reunite Cyprus are hampering Turkey’s chances of joining the EU. The Greek Cypriots represent the island in the EU, with veto rights over the admission of Turkey to the bloc. The EU partially suspended Turkey’s EU accession talks in 2006 over its refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic.

Talat last week had talks in Ankara where he met with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan, while Christofias also had talks in Athens, where he met with Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

The International Property Market (MIPIM) conference kicks off in Cannes

The International Property Market (MIPIM) conference kicks off in Cannes, France today. MIPIM, which is the world's largest commercial property event and held this year for the 19th time, will wrap up Friday. More than 28,000 delegates from 85 countries are expected to participate in the event this year. Visitors include individual and institutional real estate investors, architects, city designers, property consultants, construction and hotel groups and municipal decision makers.

Turkish property boom:

The growing real estate and construction sectors of Turkey are well represented at MIPIM. Some 79 Turkish companies and organizations are attending the event either as exhibitors or visitors - including real estate consultancies CB Richard Ellis and Kuzeybatı-Savills, the recently launched facilities management firm Profac-Eko, and real estate development firms Dumankaya, Soyak and Finventa.

One of the major real estate projects taking place in southeastern Europe, the Akkoza Park, is also presented at the fair. Akkoza Park is a joint project by Garanti Koza, Akiş and Corio at Esenyurt, Istanbul and consists of 5,500 residences, green areas, shops, services and sports facilities.

Extraordinary projects:

The largest stands in the exhibition area are the stands of London and Russian regions.

In addition, numerous other construction projects are exhibited at the fair. These include innovative towers, such as the 600 meters high Russia Tower, set to become the highest building in Europe. Several sustainable development projects are also presented.

Golf in Turkey

Often considered a bourgeoisie sport, the face of golf in Turkey is changing. The Turkish Golf Federation (TGF) is scouting the entire country and has already increased the number of licensed players to over 5,000.

While Spain earns 6 billion euros and Portugal gets 2 billion euros, Turkey only receives around 160 million euros from golf tourism, and it is the biggest asset for tourism's biggest countries. “It is impossible to raise golf tourism if there is no golf culture in the country,” says Ahmet Ağaoğlu, federation president. That is why the federation is making a great effort for a leap. In 2001, Turkey had a ridiculously small number of licensed golf players: only 78. Now there are 5,000 with almost 60 percent of them coming from poor Anatolian families.

“The all-in packages in hotels are sold for 20 euros,” says Ağaoğlu. “But an ordinary golf tourist spends 200-260 euros. You have to welcome tourists from different profiles and background, and be prepared for that.”

At first, only 60 kids have showed up for selections because of the resistance of many families. However, after successful runs in the European Championships and the Mediterranean Games, golf has made it on the sports agenda.

Additionally, it has been heard that the federation supports talented players in their education.

“We pioneered the opening of a golf coaching department in the Marmara University and 18 of our scholars are studying here,” says Ağaoğlu, underlining that it was a big deal for not-so-rich families. “Now a thousand people have applied. We are going to pick 60 of them.”

He notes that in Erzurum, there is a strong tendency for girls to play golf. There are almost 500 girls that are licensed golf players in the city. “People are exaggerating the situation when they claim that families do not send their daughters to school,” comments Ağaoğlu. “When you give them the opportunity, see what they can do.”



Golf for the challenged:

The TGF is now preparing another project for physically challenged sportsmen. German national golf team coach and captain are to work in that project. Six machines to help a player with spinal paralysis in golfing are already bought. Each machine costs 18, 000 euros. One wonders about the overall budget of such an active federation. Ağaoğlu states that a yearly budget of 150-200,000 euros is enough to keep the work going, and emphasizes that no outside support is used.

“Golf is the kind of sport that people from every age and economic group can do,” says Ağaoğlu. “It is wrong to promote it as a bourgeoisie sport.” Ağaoğlu gives the example of England and Ireland, where the lower classes play golf, too. Now the federation is trying to break that belief in Turkey. “George Bush is playing golf and Ahmet from Ağrı can play as well,” says Ağaoğlu, and adds that they have made it to a certain point.

“Of the 5,000 licensed players in Turkey, 3,000 are under the age of 18 and kids of families with lower incomes.” Ağaoğlu accepts they were a little behind their plans of 10,000 licensed sportsmen, but it is sure that the country is in fact miles away from being world leaders of the sector. In Spain, there are 304 golf courses and 300,000 players. Even though there is a long distance from the other countries, Turkey is running fast to close the gap.



Golf brings 160 million euros income:

There are currently 11 golf courses in Turkey, eight of which are in Antalya and three in Istanbul. With new courses under construction in the Antalya region, the total number is expected to reach 21 by the end of 2008. Turkish Golf Federation chief Ahmet Ağaoğlu said these courses were among the best in the world. “Between May 2006 and May 2007, Turkey had an income of 160 million euros from golf tourism. That is a pretty good amount, when we reach 100 courses, the income will increase to 1.5-2 billion euros.”

He added golf tourism's share in the general tourism income of developed countries was 15-20 percent while it is 0.4 percent in Turkey. “Foreign investers are willing to enter the Turkish golf tourism market,” Ağaoğlu stressed, “but more than 100 Turkish investors are in line, too. All the Turkish investors are very successful at construction of golf courses, management, and marketing. I do not think that foreigners will have a chance in Turkey.”