Reasons for Russian's Attitudes towards Turkish Real Estate

Experts say: The Russians previously preferred to buy real estate in Spain, Bulgaria and Italy, but interest is now declining, and the current primary destination is buying property in Turkey.

Russian requests for real estate in Spain in 2018 accounted for more than a third of foreigners ’requests to the Spanish market, while Russian requests in 2019 declined to 18.4% in Spain and Russians have moved more and more towards the property for sale in Turkey.

In comparison with Georgia, there has also been a noticeable decrease in the demands of the Russians on the Georgian real estate market, and since 2018, the share of the Turkish real estate market from the requests of the Russians has grown between 300% to 500% compared to requests in Georgia.

The highlight of the event is that in the Russian state, the popularity of Turkey real estate has jumped from fourth to second in terms of turnout and demand.

Turkish Real Estate Market for Russians

In 2019, approximately 1.35 million properties were sold in Turkey. The share of foreigners was approximately 46,000, which represents an increase of 14.7% over the previous year 2018.

For the first time, the Russians were among the most active buyers in the Turkish real estate market in 2019, and the largest number of real estate owners were respectively: Iraq - Iran - Russia, where their sales respectively reached: 7596 - 5423 - 2893, and in 2018 the Russians bought real estate at an estimated rate of about 26%.

Reasons for the increasing demand of the Russians for Turkish real estate:

• In comparison with real estate prices in Russia, house prices in Turkey are low cost.
• The Turkish coastal and tourist places attract the Russians.
• The high quality of the Turkish real estate and integrated social services match the Russian taste.
• Low cost of living, low taxes and the existence of places of tourism and entertainment in Turkey.
• The warm climate is suitable compared to the cold weather in Russia in general.
• Cancellation of the visa from Russia to Turkey and vice versa.
• Turkish nationality is the most important factor.

What Motivates Russians for the Turkish Citizenship?

In 2019, Turkey reduced the amount of obtaining Turkish citizenship by issuing a decree to buying property in Turkey from $ 1 million to $ 250,000, which made the demand for Turkish real estate market increase.

Polina Kulishova, the director of public relations for a real estate investment company, said: “Turkish citizenship provides two important advantages: visa-free access to Singapore and Japan and the possibility of obtaining US citizenship after obtaining the Turkish citizenship through an American investor visa.”

Turkey is the tourist destination of the Russians:

In 2019, during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Moscow, it was announced that 2019 is the year of tourism to increase the number of Russian visitors to Turkey and vice versa where Russia ranked first with 7 million Russians, and that is equivalent to 14% of the total number of tourists who came to Turkey.

Favorite places for Russians:

• Russians prefer real estate in Antalya, Alanya and the Mediterranean coast where the typical Russian buyer is between 35 and 50 years old.
• Many Russians go to buy apartments in Turkish resorts for investment with plans to resell real estate in the future when prices rise, which is considered as an annual average value between 10% to 20%.