Survey shows majority of Turkish citizens oppose home sales to foreign nationals

In a new article for Bloomberg, Taylan Bilgic wrote that Turkish citizens across the political spectrum oppose home sales to foreign nationals..

Bilgic’s article was based on Metropoll’s recent survey which was conducted via telephone interviews in late February. Over 79% of the 2,118 Turkish citizens surveyed expressed that home sales to foreign nationals should be banned. Bilgic writes that, “more than 77% of those who voted for the ruling AK Party in 2018” voiced their support for such a ban, indicating that the issue “straddles the country’s political divide.”

With dwindling foreign direct investment in recent years, the AKP government has increasingly relied on foreign property purchases as a “source of much-needed hard currency,” so much so that net property sales to foreigners last year accounted for 78% of all FDI.

Home purchases by foreigners also accounted for about 4.5% of all home sales in 2022, though this percentage is as high as 27% in major metropolitan cities such as Istanbul. Furthermore, Russian nationals represented about a quarter of these buyers, more than those from any other country.

Bilgic writes that the issue may become more prominent as the election approaches, with Kilicdaroglu, the opposition presidential candidate, pledging to implement a ban on such sales for at least five years or “until prices fall.”

According to Bilgic, this frustration is not unique to Turkey’s citizens. As demand has increased in housing markets, local property has become harder to afford for citizens. Countries such as Canada and New Zealand have in recent years banned foreigners from buying homes under certain conditions.