Property in Turkey: How to Buy and Sell

Over recent years the way property is bought and sold in Turkey has changed significantly. With changes in technology, the old ways, of using an agent, are a relic of the past for more than five years: local Turks no longer use agents. Proof of this widely recognized development, is the fact that more than 85% of real estate transactions now originate from on-line ‘for sale by owner’ portals, where buyers and sellers can meet discreetly with messaging, and conduct their transactions without agents. Agents are still there, lurking, but quite often when a buyer discovers a property is being listed and offered by an agent, the buyer just moves on to another property. In this respect the Turkish real estate market is more focused and progressed in moving toward a ‘peer-to-peer’ transaction environment than most developed markets in western countries.

Unfortunately, buyers and sellers from these western countries are not aware that the property market in Turkey has changed in this way. And coming from countries were similar changes are not as progressed, these foreign buyers and sellers have some difficulties in adapting to the changes. This can be seen in the size of the English speaking real estate sector in Turkey. Unlike the much larger domestic Turkish speaking market, the smaller English speaking segment is dominated by English speaking agents: a surprisingly vast number. When searching for real estate in the Turkish language, none of these English speaking agencies are shown; but when searching in English, none of the much larger and dominant real estate portals are shown. 

This is an interesting dichotomy and my blog offers a commentary on what goes on between these two ‘parallel universes’ operating in the same location. Enjoy…!