Turkey’s government is set to boost its property market through the introduction of a new ‘Help to Buy’ type scheme, in a bid to stimulate domestic buying and support construction.
Currently, Turkish homebuyers are able to take out mortgages worth a maximum 75% of their property value, requiring a deposit of at least 25%. The new state incentive, part of a reform package, will ease some of the burden for first-time buyers by contributing 15% towards their deposit.
Foreign buyers purchased 18,959 housing units in Turkey during the first 11 months of 2014, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute TurkStat, up 55.6% year-on-year, which contributed €3.3bn to the economy.
In 2014, Antalya was the most popular location for foreign buyers (34.5% of purchases), followed by Istanbul (29.4%), where the biggest driver was buy-to-let property in its up-and-coming suburbs.
