Turkey in Good Shape as Residential Prices Rise

Residential property prices in Turkey are stabilising and a credit rating upgrade is expected to increase interest in a country that has managed to avoid the worst excesses of the global economic downturn, it is claimed.

Official real estate price figures are hard to come by but the regular monthly index from Reidin gives the best indication of what is happening. According to its latest report prices increased slightly in some areas and fell in others but overall the market is stable.

It shows that in January prices increased 0.34% in Adana, 0.24% in Ankara and 0.49% in Istanbul. Prices were down 0.43% in Antalya, 0.55% in Bursa, 0.18% in Izmir and 0.24% in Kocaeli.

Turkey has managed to avoid the kind of mistakes that Spain has suffered and some experts think it is one of the best alternative property destinations for those who feel the market in Spain is to be avoided at present.

Careful Government policy has steered Turkey calmly through a turbulent 2009 and decreased its debt levels. The nation can be confident of a solid financial sector, in spite of external pressures, and according to Standard & Poor’s credit analyst ‘Turkey’s banking system will be one of the strongest and least-leveraged in Eastern Europe’.

The agency indicated that it expects to upgrade the country again over the next one to two years should it continue to weather the global turmoil and reduce its dependence on external funding.

‘At the moment Turkey is certainly in good shape and all of this bodes well for Turkey’s constant endeavour to become part of the European Union,’ he added.

Although European membership remains some way off, the property industry believes it will benefit from increased inward foreign investment which will have a knock on positive effect for everyone with a second home in the country.