Many more people are coming to Antalya and surrounding areas since international tourism resumed 2 years after the global pandemic. The great climate and comfortable local life convince many tourists to buy real estate in this province. The area offers resorts like Antalya, Alanya, Belek, Side, Kemer, plus several coastal villages. These are less well-known but have more recreational options for people to enjoy.
Antalya, known as the «resort capital of Turkey», is experiencing another popularity peak, especially with real estate investments.
CONTENTS:
- Tourists and residents
- Alanya may soon become a separate province
- Infrastructural improvements in the area
- For leisure or to buy a house?
- Living and working
- The volume of real estate sales to foreigners in Antalya
Tourists and residents
In 2020, a somewhat stable presence of 95,000 foreign citizens was recorded in Antalya. But, a year later, this number increased sharply to 137,000, according to Daily Sabah.
Estimates at the end of 2021 show that the number of people in the province was 2,619,832 of which 136,946 are citizens of other states – an increase of 45.2% in just one year. Interestingly, 55,726 people are men.
Passport holders from more than 90 countries live in Antalya. Among these are Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the USA, Japan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, etc. Europeans are the majority. According to media reports, almost 27,000 of our compatriots (29,691) are permanent residents. The area is attractive to Europeans because you can choose a mostly European area to live in and not even learn Turkish. English is used in many institutions. And in some rare situations (like going to a lawyer or a doctor), you can get the help of an interpreter. But there are a fair number of English speaking doctors and lawyers. Kazakhstan is in second place with 18,214 people. Iranian citizens are third and recent reports show there are 11,620. Interestingly, Iranians buy the most housing in Turkey from month to month.
In the fourth place among the TOP-5 is Germany (11 328) and Kyrgyzstan (9331) is fifth.
Permanent residents mainly refer to foreigners with residence permits, so the statistics are still «delayed» because of visa periods being delayed by months or years by tourists who rent apartments.
We can see that Antalya is in high demand, especially for rental apartments and houses. Over the past year, rental housing in this area rose in price by almost 66%.
Alanya may soon become a separate province
Alanya and its surroundings have the highest number of foreign residents. The city has grown and is steadily developing important infrastructure. So there’s been increased talk about making Alanya an independent province because its population is already larger than other official provinces.
If we go back to the statistics, 10% of Alanya’s population are foreigners with residence permits. The next most popular among foreign investors with permanent residence are the districts of Muratpasha and Konyaalti in Antalya city.
The wonderful climate and healthy diet are just 2 of Antalya’s attractive features. The summer is especially sultry here and the winters are very warm. In the last 2 years, the swimming season lasted all year and water temperatures stayed higher than air temperatures.
Infrastructural improvements in the area
Gazipasa Airport opened to international flights several years ago and its turnover is steadily increasing. In January 2022, the number of tourists passing through increased by 50% compared to January 2021 despite the pandemic.
Last month, there were 27,096 passengers for domestic and international flights. Europe had the most with 5497 people, Finland (3992) was in second place, and Iran (1590 people) was third.
In Alanya, new roads are being laid rapidly to connect neighborhoods with the city center and important highways.
Many new parks and squares are being built for the convenience of citizens and tourists.
The number of beaches with the prestigious "Blue Flag" status increased to 78 last season.
Last year, local authorities reported that they were about to complete a new student dormitory, similar in comfort to a high-level hotel. Returning students from «remote» to full-time study has meant that the demand for budget accommodation options in university cities has peaked.
Medical services are also extremely important. In mid-February, the Municipality of Alanya reported on measures taken to give full medical care to disabled and elderly patients living in rural areas. This is the project «Medical care at home» implemented by the Mayor of Alanya Adem Murat Yudzhel under the «Social Municipality» mission.
In this program, a medical team of a doctor and 2 nurses goes to a house, conducts a general examination of a citizen, measures blood pressure and sugar levels, and advises on medical support.
According to the mayor, from the start of the project in 2016, home care services and drug support were provided to 4,592 citizens. The team serves up to about 10 residents per day.
A new tourist season starts about a month later so large-scale work to improve embankments in Alanya continues. First, a 30-kilometer bike path stretching almost through the whole city was developed. Even before the start of this new season, the municipality decided to renovate all cafes. Old ones were demolished and new ones will be built under a unified project to maintain uniformity and the embankment’s overall attractive appearance.
The development of the embankment and the beach from the center of Alanya to the Kargicak quarter continues. Adem Murat Yudzhel said that the plan is to provide amenities to all vacationers - pedestrian, bicycle paths plus modern landscaping for 19 km along the coast. Teams from the Department of Urban Design, the Department of Science and the Department of Parks and Gardens are all working on the project.
There are also many changes in Antalya province as a whole with many hospitals being renovated and 12 new schools are expected to open. Even tourist residence permits allow children to receive free education in local institutions.
It’s not surprising that the number of foreigners moving to Antalya for permanent residence and receiving residence permits is steadily growing. Many more citizens from other countries prefer this area.
For leisure or to buy a house?
According to Emlakkulisi and the Anadolu news agency, Antalya, the «resort capital» and «capital of tourism», remains a favorite among foreigners for real estate sales.
Over the past year, residential real estate purchases and investments have increased markedly. The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Antalya (ALSO), David Cetin, clarified that Antalya, a favorite among travelers, will continue to remain attractive because of its many historical cultural sites, climate, sun, sea and sand. Despite the pandemic, Antalya has received 9,000,000 guests and many visited and decided to stay. The latest data shows that 18.5% of the total number of residences sold in Antalya are bought by investors from abroad. In 2021, out of 66,691 residences in the province, 12,384 were sold to foreigners, Mr. Cetin explained that
sales in the region have grown over the past 4 years. The majority of citizens who purchase housing in Antalya are Europeans and Germans. There are also buyers from Jordan, Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East.
Living and working
In addition to interest in permanent residence, there are also many business requests. Davut Cetin said that 558 new companies with foreign partners were created in the city in 2021. At the moment, out of 56,000 ATSO members, 4647 are firms with foreign capital. In this, Europe is also in the first place with 656 companies. Germany is in second place (626), Iran in third (522), and Azerbaijan in fourth (283). These are followed by the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
ATSO statistics show that foreign investors prefer investing mainly in wholesale real estate like food, travel agencies, construction, restaurants, agricultural production, textiles, and information technology. This is good for the region, says David Cetin. After all, even firms with foreign capital that have partners in Turkey «... make a significant contribution to the economy and employment of Antalya».
For those who plan to live on more than a passive or remote income, it makes sense to think about starting a business in the area since local associations favor these initiatives.
The volume of real estate sales to foreigners in Antalya
For all of 2021, more than 99,000 residences have found new owners in the province and interest from foreign tourists is especially high now. David Cetin recalls that 3,200,000 travelers from abroad visited Antalya in 2020 and 9,100,000 in 2021 - almost 3 times more. David Cetin stressed that last year turned out to be particularly productive because even though prices rose, residential real estate sales didn’t decrease. Almost a fifth of transactions were by foreigners.
In January 2022, 88,306 housing units were sold in Turkey, including 4,295 in Antalya province. Foreigners purchased 914 residences or about 23%.