Istanbul and Antalya: two different property markets in Turkey

The Turkish market is usually discussed as a whole, though inside it splits into two almost unconnected stories. Istanbul is a large urban market with domestic demand. Antalya and the coast are a resort market, a significant part of which rests on the foreign buyer.

Istanbul: a city, not a resort

Fifteen million residents, the country's business centre, universities, industry. Demand here is domestic and work-driven: people rent and buy because they live and work in the city, not because the sea is nearby.

• The tenant is a local family, a student, an arriving professional. There is almost no seasonality.
• Liquidity is the highest in the country: the market is deep and there is always a buyer.
• Geography decides everything. European and Asian sides, proximity to metro lines, travel time to the business centre — that is the price.
• The risk is seismic. Istanbul sits in a zone of expected strong earthquakes, and the age and structure of a building matter more here than the view.

Antalya and the coast: season and foreign demand

The resort market lives in summer and is sold to a significant degree to foreigners — in different years buyers from Russia, Iran, Germany, the Gulf states.

• Rental demand is touristic, with a pronounced peak.
• The tenant is a tourist in summer and a wintering foreigner in the cold months.
• Supply is built to foreign taste: complexes with a pool, security, amenities.
• Concentration risk. When the flow of buyers from one country stops, a segment built for them loses both sellers and tenants.
• The exit is slower than Istanbul's: you wait for a buyer.

What both markets share

• The currency question. The lira depreciated fast and for a long time, and a property's return in dollars can diverge radically from its return in lira.
• Settlement. Turkish currency regulation requires transactions between residents to be conducted in lira; transactions with a foreign buyer have their own procedure with mandatory conversion and a certificate of it. Technical, but compulsory.
• A mandatory valuation by a licensed valuer when selling to a foreigner — a document that also protects the buyer from an inflated price.