Data from another survey, which was conducted by one of the independent Turkish agencies, said that, of course, foreign owners of real estate in Turkey have their own geographical preferences (for example, Americans traditionally choose Ankara, Greeks choose Izmir, Germans choose Alanya, Syrians choose Hatay, Norwegians choose Kemer, etc.); however, four out of 10 foreign citizens have already purchased or seriously intend to purchase real estate concentrated in two places – Istanbul and Antalya. Istanbul, of course, attracts primarily those for whom Turkey is a place for doing business. But Antalya is interesting to a much wider circle, and the advertising slogans calling foreigners to come here to relax or buy a second home sound extremely tempting – “Everything is here!”, “To Turkey – like home”, “Real quality of life at unrealistically low prices.”
From all that has been said, it is easy to conclude: despite the fact that our tourists also appear in other resort areas of Turkey, even reaching Cesme (for a long time unknown to us), the vast majority of Russian-speaking homeowners are concentrated in the Antalya region. Last year, Turkish guides working at Aegean Sea resorts noted with some surprise that, for example, about 20 families of our compatriots already live in Kusadasi. As the Real Estate Digest writes, Antalya guides would simply smile at such statistics – in Antalya there are already several orders of magnitude more of our people. And if, according to the head of the Turkish Tourism Council Hussein Baraner, in the next 10 years the overall “European component” of the population of Turkish resorts will grow by another 3 million people, then the “Russian-speaking component” alone, according to the Anatolian News Agency, will grow by several thousand. In general, representatives of 44 countries now own real estate in the Antalya region, including Germany, Great Britain, Holland, the USA, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Iran, Egypt and even Guatemala.
Actually, on the domestic real estate market, Antalya has exactly repeated the path that the coast of the Spanish province of Catalonia had previously taken. (By the way, modern Turkey is compared to various countries, but most often the parallel is drawn with Spain – more precisely, with Spain at the time of its negotiations on joining the EU.) The promotion of the tourist brand, the availability of year-round air service and, importantly, year-round life (Antalya is, of course, not quite Barcelona, but still it does not die out in winter like most resort towns), developed infrastructure including golf courses (there are eight in the Antalya region, and there are offers on the market roughly like this: buy real estate – and simultaneously get annual membership in the National Golf Club of Antalya), football fields (about a hundred of them), yacht moorings (in the Kaleici Turban Marina in Antalya Bay there are more than 130 foreign sailing and motor private vessels) – all this, combined with a good climate, a very high standard of living and relatively low prices, initially made Antalya the #1 region for our compatriots.
Our compatriots also have their own specifically attractive points. In particular, the Russian consulate operates in Antalya, and a Russian school with a Russian curriculum has been opened. And on February 27 of this year, the Society of Compatriots of the city of Antalya was registered, whose tasks, among other things, include all-round assistance to compatriots living in Turkey (including help in learning the language and finding employment), support in the implementation of investment projects, as well as forming a positive image of citizens in the eyes of the Turkish population.
The comparison of Turkey with Spain of the recent past is also appropriate with regard to the increase in real estate prices: Turkey is now showing approximately the same rate of price growth as Spain did earlier. Over the past five years, the appreciation in the most popular resort areas of the country has been fourfold. Nevertheless, Turkish real estate retains its price attractiveness, especially given the variety of properties offered for sale.
For example, in the Antalya area you can buy a very modest one-bedroom apartment (60 sq. m, 6.9 km from the sea, but the price is fantastic – 29,500 euros), or a three-bedroom with much more attractive parameters (150 sq. m, only 300 m from the sea, but the price is somewhat different – 62,500). These are from the category “quite inexpensive”. For those with slightly larger means, other options are offered: for instance, a two-bedroom apartment located near the sandy Lara Beach (85 sq. m, 400 m from the sea) for €69,500, or a three-bedroom apartment next to Konyaalti Beach (180 sq. m, 600 m from the sea, 2 terraces) for 93,800.
In addition, if until a certain time buyers were offered mainly infill development projects, now they also offer housing in newly built complexes. Such as, for example, apartments in the Riverside complex, located in a new and one of the most prestigious areas of Antalya – Lara-Kundu. From here it is only 500 m to the beach, 10 km to the city center, 15 km to the airport, 100 m to the main road connecting Antalya and Aksu, and a few minutes' walk to the largest golf club in Turkey. Pool, sports and children's playgrounds, recreation areas, parking, 24-hour video surveillance, outdoor lighting – there is no particular need to say that all this is in Riverside, whose developers have taken into account all modern requirements for high-class housing.
• It should be noted that recently, not only foreign but also domestic developers who value their reputation use only the latest technologies to illuminate their properties. LED lamps are becoming more and more fashionable, which allow not only to organize effective lighting of premises, but also to save on electricity in the future.
The complex has four 12-story buildings, each with 24 apartments of 125 square meters. Moreover, all apartments offer a pleasant view of the sea and the city.
Of course, a certain obstacle to the acquisition of real estate in Turkey by foreigners is the peculiarities of legislation: our compatriots have the right to purchase apartments and villas here as property, but the plots under them can only be registered for long-term lease. And the bill on the sale of land and real estate to foreigners, which finally passed through parliament and was approved by the country's president, has not changed anything for us.
But another legislative change, which came into force on June 1, 2006, caused a lot of noise. From that moment, a new procedure for the acquisition of Turkish real estate by citizens of the former Soviet Union began to operate, its essence being as follows: now documents from citizens wishing to purchase real estate in Turkey are accepted only if they have a residence permit (RP) issued for a period of at least six months. This wording caused complete confusion: many did not understand whether they were creating obstacles for us in this way (those interested in immigration know perfectly well what it is like to get a residence permit anywhere), or they want to tie them more firmly to Turkey, or they are pursuing some other goal unknown to the uninitiated.
It turned out that everything is not so scary. Corresponding residence permits are issued at police stations at the location of the purchased real estate, and they are issued almost automatically – on the basis of providing a foreign passport, a bank account statement or a certificate of currency exchange for an amount of at least $1,200 and documents confirming the fact of an agreement to purchase an apartment or house. The processing time for a residence permit is one week, the cost is about $250, a mandatory condition is that the foreign passport must be valid for at least six months, and it can be extended on the basis of purchasing real estate. During the entire period of validity, the residence permit gives its holder the right to multiple entries into Turkey without paying a visa fee, as well as other rights in the country (except, of course, the right to vote). In case of termination of a real estate transaction, the residence permit is canceled.
How this innovation will affect the real estate market will be shown in the near future. Most likely, it will not affect it much. This year, tourist Turkey was also predicted to face emptiness and oblivion – due to bird flu and information about the unfavorable environmental situation in some Turkish resorts. However, prices for tours have not been reduced, and there are no fewer people on Turkish beaches. And our fellow citizens are no strangers to adapting to changes in legislation – we are better at it than almost anyone else.