Azerbaijani capital goes to Turkish shores

The main cadastral department of Turkey released data on the sale of real estate to foreign citizens. It turned out, that in January-February this year, Azerbaijani citizens purchased about 130 apartments in this country, not counting commercial objects. Compared to the same period last year, sales growth in residential premises was 10%. According to the Anadolu agency, in 2017 foreigners bought real estate worth $ 4.6 billion in Turkey, which is by 19.4% more than in 2016.

Azerbaijani citizens purchased 942 properties in Turkey, in Britain - 794, in Germany - 772, in Iran - 792, in Egypt - 587. Another 7311 properties in Turkey were purchased by citizens of other countries. That is, every 24th property for sale in Turkey was purchased by Azerbaijanis.

Accordingly, the volume of investments from the citizens of Azerbaijan in real estate in Turkey amounted to an average of over 191 million dollars. Consequently, this amount of finance was exported from the country and invested in the Turkish real estate market.

The devaluation of manat, which became a shock therapy for the national banking system and no less for the population, served as a powerful catalyst for the outflow of capital from Azerbaijan. Wealthy entrepreneurs, followed by "modest" deputies of the Milli Majlis and state employees, became owners of real estate not only in Turkey, but also in Northern Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, and Ukraine.

The director of real estate company "New Europe Baku" Vafadar Akhundov informs, if we take the regional aspect of deals, Azerbaijani investors prefer to buy housing and trade facilities in Istanbul.

"In this megalopolis, housing is bought by the parents of well-off students and businessmen who travel to this city. In other words, these premises are purchased for personal use. But for some investors buying real estate is pure business: housing is purchased for renting and getting a stable, good income,"Akhundov said.

The list of prior regions includes also Bodrum, Antalya, Alanya. Head of Trade and Industrial Facilities of Alanya, Metin Alatay, reports that there is a great interest of Azerbaijanis to buy housing in the city. Prices for apartments start at 30 thousand euros. The average cost of an apartment in this city is 56 600 euros. Mostly they buy 1-2-room apartments. Purchase and sale of villas stopped, and this is due to the prices.

In the resort areas, real estate is bought by Azerbaijanis mainly for leasing. One of the important factors attracting foreigners to Turkey is the release of foreign property buyers from paying VAT.

However, activity in neighboring Georgia has also increased significantly recently. In 2012-2016 in the country more than 34 thousand real estate transactions involving foreign citizens have been concluded, the State Statistical Committee reported. The positive trend continued in 2017. The list of buyers of Georgian real estate is led by investors from Russia, followed by citizens of Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Armenia. Taking into account that average prices for housing in a neighboring country do not differ much from Azerbaijan, one can conclude that our middle-class entrepreneurs are new owners of apartments or houses in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, etc.

In an interview with the site oxu.az, real estate expert Rashad Aliyev said that Azerbaijani investors are rushing to foreign markets for several reasons.

"Housing in Turkey is bought because of attractive prices. From the perspective of the prospects of the market, investments in housing in Turkey have been and remain more attractive than in Azerbaijan. Another reason is that banks have low interest on dollar deposits. People began to invest the currency they have in other assets. Many people buy housing in Turkey because they work there and have a business," the expert said. It is not strange, the instability of the Turkish lira did not affect the activity of buyers.

Referring to the situation on the local real estate market, the expert said that prices are stable, but activity is low. Now players in the market mainly improve their living conditions. People began to invest less in housing.

In a word, this market is stagnant. But we must take into account the fact that the last two years the preferences and structure of the market have changed. If we talk about preferences, then in the last two years, buyers in the market prefer new buildings. One of the factors affecting this is the demolition of houses. The pilot projects, social housing are beginning to emerge on the market.