16 April 2008 | In line with a constitutional court ruling, foreigners will not be able to buy property in Turkey starting today until a second decision is made, national media reported.

The law does not ban foreigners from selling property they already own to Turkish citizens and does not apply to firms founded by foreigners in Turkey under the law for the foreign direct investment.

According to the Hürriyet newspaper, a total of 63,085 properties have so far been sold to 73,103 foreigners. The media added that German, British, and Greek citizens were the leading buyers of Turkish property.

As BalkanTravellers.com reported earlier in April, German citizens preferred purchasing property in the Antalya Province, while British nationals are the largest group of foreigners favour real estate in the Mugla Province.

Foreign investors’ annual real estate purchases amounted to $3 billion for the past three years, Hürriyet added, which accounted for about 8.5 per cent of the current account deficit.

“We believe that the government will take this issue seriously and is likely to pass the necessary legislation through the parliament. However, the timing remains uncertain and the impact on the financing of the current account deficit should be negative in the near term,” Raymond James Financial said in a research report on Wednesday, quoted by Hürriyet.

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