They took it and took it away: the Russians are afraid of taking away their Turkish property

According to the Russian owners of Turkish housing themselves, the “legs” of the rumor grow from the Turks themselves: the local manager whispered to some homeowners, others were told by neighbors in the residential complex that a census was conducted, how many apartments belong to citizens with a Russian passport.

Dmitry from Moscow, the owner of an apartment on the Turkish Riviera, has been renting it out to vacationers since April, while he himself lives in a dacha near Moscow (he sold an apartment in the capital in order to buy a smaller one, but near Kemer):

– In the high season for Turkey, the local real estate is my breadwinner! Dmitry shares. – On the spot, the Turkish is following the rental business, reliable, I have known him for a long time and do not offend him with money, so there is no need for him to lie. And so he told me that the nix, they say, Turkish residential facilities can be removed from the property of citizens of the Russian Federation. My first reaction was: what nonsense, this is impossible according to the law. Until I remembered Finca and the Baltic States, which took and took away their European property from the Russian owners. Thank you for not being nationalized. But Russian owners do not have access to it – this is a fait accompli.

Dmitri’s anxiety was exacerbated by a message from Russian friends who had long been eyeing and planning to buy an apartment in a Turkish resort, and in mid-September flew to Antalya to complete the deal.

– They call in tears, – says Dmitry. – The Turkish real estate agency, with which they had been selecting a suitable option for a year, already on the spot suddenly answered that their object was sold. Well, it’s clear that this doesn’t happen, it’s an excuse, cheap, moreover, without expecting that a normal person will believe in it. Simply put, the Russians were simply denied the purchase of Turkish real estate. And this is not a good signal.

And there is something to take away: in January-April 2022 alone, according to the data of Turkish real estate companies themselves, Russians acquired 2,687 Turkish residential properties, which is 65% more than in the same period last year. Citizens of the Russian Federation bought “real estate” in Turkey so actively that they took second place in terms of investments in the Turkish housing stock (1st from the Iranians, who bought 3161 residential premises in 4 months, 3rd from the Iraqis – they bought 2601 apartments in Turkey). The next three leaders in buying up Turkish housing are Germans, Kazakhs and Afghans. In just 4 months, foreigners, including Russians, spent $2.3 billion on Turkish apartments and $3.7 billion on houses.

– Could it be that the Russians will somehow be separated from their Turkish housing? – I’m interested in a Russian realtor who helps with the purchase of housing for our relocators who are moving abroad permanently or for a long time.

– Theoretically, no, but now, due to circumstances, anything is possible. – answers an expert in foreign real estate, specializing in particular in Central and Southeast Asia. “But even in the worst case scenario, housing sold to Russians will not be returned to its owners, so the Turks themselves, both property owners and brokers, are completely unprofitable to lose a Russian buyer. Prices have skyrocketed, but ours are all the same, all along the coast and in Istanbul, they are sweeping the most actively.

– But why then refused to new buyers?

– Probably, this is some special case. The sales policy depends, among other things, on the developer: if it is a major player in the market, he may observe certain political “polites”. But in ordinary transactions, no one cares about this if the seller has goods and the buyer has money. Although, it must be admitted, many of my clients are now sharply reoriented to Tai. Although, perhaps, simply because the season is running out in Turkey, and in Thailand only at the start.

We are trying to get to the bottom of the truth on the Turkish side, torturing a friend of a realtor from Side. There can’t be smoke at all without fire!

– Our newspapers reported that major Turkish developers put some conditions regarding sales to the Russians – says a broker from the Turkish Riviera. – Whoever breaks it is also subject to sanctions. We collected information on major developers of resort residential complexes, how many new owners from Russia they had over the past six months, and how exactly, in what currency or through which bank, they paid. In principle, this can be believed. Although I personally am embarrassed that they were allegedly interested in the United States. America something to do with it?

– Well, have you somehow already felt these rumors, or not?

– I am engaged in “secondary”, and a private Turkish owner, if he wants to profitably sell his space, will never refuse a buyer with money on national, passport and any other grounds. But developers selling new housing through brokerage companies could have set conditions. Fortunately, I have nothing to do with them. We are always open for you, we will sell everything and take nothing away.

Meanwhile, a “carpet” survey of Russian brokers brokering Asian real estate shows that the Russian buyer of real estate in the region has indeed turned sharply towards Thailand. According to the information center for real estate transactions of the Thai state-owned bank, over the past month alone, the demand for real estate in their Kingdom from the Russians has doubled compared to mid-summer, and even 4 times compared to the same period last year. In terms of the speed and volume of acquisition of Thai real estate, as in the case of Turkish real estate, Russians are in 2nd place, having bought 74 properties this year with a total value of 245 million baht (about 400 million rubles), which accounted for 6.4% of all sales of Thai residential properties for foreigners. But, unlike Turkey, it is not the Afghans and the Iranians who neighbor us in Thailand: the Chinese are in the first place in buying Thai housing (45% of all transactions), the 3rd step of the podium was shared by the British with the Americans, however, by a wide margin from the leaders with less than 2% of all transactions of Thai brokers with foreign buyers. – Thai is politically neutral, and prices, unlike Turkey, are still adequate, – a broker dealing with Thai real estate comments on the reasons for the preference of Russian buyers. – For example, a studio with furniture in Phuket can be found for 110 thousand dollars (about 6.62 million rubles – author). For housing with an area of ​​30-35 sq.m in a popular tourist area right by the sea, this is very inexpensive, even for the less popular in the tourist sense, Tai’s neighbors in the region are on average more expensive. Private villas with two bedrooms on the coast from $200 thousand (12.03 million rubles). True, Thailand does not give so-called “investment citizenship” for buying a home, but there are no surprises either. It seems to be no worse and cheaper in India and Sri Lanka, but a foreigner can invest in real estate in these countries only by registering it in the name of an Indian or Sri Lankan.