Real estate agents and companies working to sell fixed properties in Turkey to foreigners will be receiving financial support in the amount of millions of liras annually from the government, according to a decree recently signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, local media reported on Thursday.
The decree published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday included the country’s real estate sector within the scope of “service exports,” local media reports said, adding that the state would be granting funds to companies and other institutions in Turkey that provide real estate services to foreigners.
According to the decision, the Trade Ministry will be giving an annual amount of up to TL 1.8 million ($122,486) in advertising support, up to TL 300,000 ($20,412) for participation in fairs and other events and up to TL 600,000 ($40,825) for product placement in movies and TV series to individuals and companies providing real estate services to foreigners.
Reacting to the decree on social media, Birol Aydemir, former head of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and deputy chairman of the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), said he was “shocked” by it.
“Let’s say you are a real estate agent and you go to Morocco to look for a Moroccan who wants to buy an apartment in Turkey. You started a real estate agency for this purpose. You’ll be able to receive TL 3.6 million annually from our government to pay the rent. [Let’s say] you advertised on Moroccan TV and billboards and produced brochures. Our government will give you TL 1.8 million a year for these expenses,” Aydemir said.
Inn 2013 foreign nationals accounted for 1.1 percent of house sales in Turkey, a country where citizens have been struggling to even pay the rent due to prices fueled by a currency crisis amid the highest rate of inflation in nearly two decades, rising to 4.5 percent in the first three months of 2022.
Turkey’s inflation hit an annual rate of 61.14 percent in March, up from 54.4 percent in February, official data showed earlier in April.