30 Nisan 2011 Cumartesi

Turkey and the European Union

Turkey and the European Union has been a hot topic on everyone’s lips for quite some time now. It has divided observers of the topic into two camps. The first camp is adament that Turkey and The European union will not happen on their watch and the second camp is all for it. Famous members of the first camp are the governments of France and Germany whilst Spain has adamantly stated that it supports Turkey’s entry into the EU.

Whilst everyone argues amongst themselves as to whether Turkey will join the European Union, Real estate investors worldwide have chosen to play it safe and are sitting on the sidelines when it comes to whether they should invest in the Turkish Property market. Everyone talks about the prices of property going up if Turkey was to join the European Union and that is simply the first mistake that investors are making. The Turkey and European union partnership is here to stay whether Turkey gets accepted or not.



Turkey has been eligible for European Union pre-acession funding since 2004 and has to date already received millions in Euros to get the standard of living and its economic markets up to the required standards of the EU.

Towns and cities have received major funding by the Turkish government to improve their local infra structure and this has already had a knock on effect of property prices. Eight years ago the average price for a one bedroom apartment was $12,000 or £8000. Today in 2010 that price is an average of £18,000 or $30,000. It goes without saying that as a towns infrastructure improves then the property prices go up.

Another factor that investors are ignoring is that Turkey is also investing millions into its Tourism market. Belek is now known as the Golfing resort of Turkey and is set to take over Portugal as a major golfing hotspot. The town of Altinkum on the Aegean coast has just finished completion of a 55 million dollar marina leading it to be the second biggest in Turkey.

So if we take into consideration the funding that Turkey has already received from the European Union, the investment by Turkey into its infra structure and tourism markets, now add these to the fact that Turkish Property is already undervalued because there is a wide availablity of property, it would seem that investors sitting on the sidelines are losing out.

Investors should be putting their money into the Turkish Property market now and looking at around a five-year investment to gain a healthy return. This five-year estimation is also taking into account the law that capital gains tax does not have to be paid after five years of ownership. Ideally a bigger investment is off plan property as these are selling at off plan prices.

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