The year of 2022 was impressive not only in terms of some numbers in the residential property sales (for example, December had been the second best month since the end of 2020 with more than 180,000 lots sold). This year will be even more memorable for real estate market players due to the high demand for housing from foreigners as well as a similar increase in requests for residence permits.
In this article, we present the statistics collected by Turk Estate from a variety of sources as well as the data obtained on the dynamics of housing sales to citizens of other states in a ten-year period.
Content:
- Residence permit: the year’s highs
- Sales to foreigners in figures
- Nationality of buyers: rating
- Top 2022
Residence permit: the year’s highs
According to RIA Novosti, referring to information received from the country's Migration Department, in 2022, more than 150,000 Russian citizens successfully received a residence permit in Turkey, as tourists or by right of ownership (TAPU). So Russia turned out to be the leading state in terms of the number of residence permits received by its citizens. Moreover, the majority fell on tourist ikamets, that is, residence permits obtained based on renting real estate. Namely – 132,000 of 153,000. Their validity period is up to one year.
The second line in this ranking is occupied by citizens of Iraq: 131,000 people received residence permits. In third place are the Syrians, who received 100,000 ikamets. Citizens of Ukraine have also noticeably “advanced” in volumes: in 2022, they received 47,000 residence permits.
The total number of foreigners who stay in Turkey legally, and specifically with a valid residence permit, gradually amounted to 1.354 million. Bear in mind that a residence permit by ownership and a tourist residence (based on rental property) are not the only options. Family residence permits are also issued in several formats (by marriage, evlilik sonrasi, etc.), and there are permits for legal stay based on study and work visas and blue cards. According to the Turkish Migration Department, the largest number of residence permits obtained last year on the basis of family ties or education was issued to Azerbaijani citizens.
Most of all foreigners got temporary registration in the largest Turkish metropolis, Istanbul: there were more than 700,000 expats living in this city. Antalya province is the second in terms of number of expats: here the figure was more than 158,000.
The total number of citizens of other states legally residing in Turkey not as tourists increased by 400,000 in 2022 compared to 2021.
Sales to foreigners in figures
Over the past two years, since January 2021, the most successful months in terms of the number of transactions with foreign investors have been November and December of 2021 and June of 2022.
In December 2022, there were 6386 transactions registered, which is about 1500 units or 18.6% less than a year earlier (7841 sales in December 2021).
In December, the total share of housing sales to foreigners was 3.1%. This is less than the average for the year – the average percentage for all months was 4.5%, and the maximum exceeded 5%. We mean the percentage of purchases by foreigners in the total volume of transactions per month. However, even a few years ago, it must be noted that developers could not even dream of more than three percent.
In December 2022, citizens of other states purchased the most housing in the province of Antalya: 2465 residences. Istanbul takes second place with 968 lots, and the steadily growing province of Mersin occupies third place with 663 lots.
In general, over the past year, foreigners have purchased 67,490 lots – apartments or houses – only a little short of the figure of 70,000 units, which many market players dreamed of. This is still 15.2% more than in 2021.
At the end of 2022, Istanbul had the maximum transactions with foreigners: it accounted for much more than half of all real estate sales to foreigners, or 24,953 housing units. This is approximately 37% of total sales. In second place, but not too far behind, is Antalya with 21,860 units or over 32% of total sales. Third place is taken by Mersin (4316 lots), which has already become familiar to analysts last year.
Ankara (2687 transactions with foreigners per year) and Bursa (2022 transactions) also got into the "top five" in terms of the number of sales.
Now let's compare the numbers for the past decade:
- 2013 – 12,181 transactions with foreigners;
- 2014 – 18,959 transactions;
- 2015 – 22,830 transactions;
- 2016 – 18,189 transactions;
- 2017 – 22,234 transactions;
- 2018 – 39,663 transactions;
- 2019 – 45,483 transactions;
- 2020 – 40,812 transactions;
- 2021 – 58,756 transactions;
- 2022 – 67,490 transactions.
Nationality of buyers: rating
Russians lead in terms of the volume of purchased real estate, having bought a total of 16,312 residential real estate units in Turkey last year. Since April, citizens of the Russian Federation have made the most transactions every month, “bypassing” the former leaders, from whom Russia used to lag behind. Moreover, the Russians purchased more in 2022 than the Iranians and Iraqis combined, with 8223 transactions of Iranian citizens and 6241 transactions of Iraqi citizens.
In ‘stellar December, Russians bought out 2403 units of residential real estate, Iranians – 675, Iraqis – 345.
It is interesting to compare the 20 states whose citizens purchased the most residential real estate units in the Republic of Turkey in December and for 2022 as a whole. Here are the exact numbers:
December 2022
- Russian Federation – 2403 transactions;
- Iran - 675;
- Iraq - 345;
- Ukraine - 306;
- Kazakhstan - 266;
- Germany - 212;
- Saudi Arabia - 162;
- Azerbaijan - 139;
- Kuwait - 119;
- USA - 103;
- Afghanistan - 103;
- China - 81;
- Canada - 75;
- Poland - 73;
- England - 71;
- Egypt - 71;
- Palestine - 63;
- Yemen - 61;
- Algeria - 56;
- Sweden - 54.
2022 (12 months)
- Russian Federation – 16312 transactions;
- Iran - 8223;
- Iraq - 6241;
- Germany - 2705;
- Kazakhstan - 2702;
- Ukraine - 2574;
- Afghanistan - 1732;
- Kuwait - 1671;
- Azerbaijan - 1330;
- USA - 1329;
- England - 1236;
- Yemen - 1202;
- China - 1179;
- Palestine - 1145;
- Egypt - 1115;
- Saudi Arabia - 1090;
- Jordan - 1071;
- Pakistan - 1003;
- Lebanon - 815;
- Canada - 760.
As you can see, some of the most frequent participants in the TOP-20 rating of the year in December did not even make it into the "twenty leaders".
Top 2022
Finally, about the popularity of Antalya and Mersin last year: for some months and for some factors, they even overtook the former leader – Istanbul.
In total, the number of residential real estate units sold to foreigners in Antalya increased dramatically compared to the previous year. In 2021, in this province, citizens of other states bought out 12,384 housing units, but in 2022, this number increased to 21,860 (+76.5%).
In Antalya, 66,691 residences were sold in 2022, and the share of sales to foreigners in the total volume of residential real estate transactions for the 12 months amounted to 32.7%. In other words, every third lot sold in this province last year was purchased by foreigners.
Well, every third residence bought by foreigners in 2022 was purchased by citizens of the Russian Federation.
The number of residences sold to foreign investors in Mersin increased immediately by 71% in 2022, totaling 4316 units.