Property in Turkey Still Hot for Overseas Buyers Despite Riots

Property in Turkey continues to prove an attractive prospect to foreigners despite the city riots seen in recent months, according to Oceanwide Properties highlighting latest housing sale figures. Based on Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning figures, the number of homes and land plots purchased by non-Turkish residents have doubled within the first six months of 2013.

Oceanwide Properties additionally highlight that the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul and follow-on demonstrations in some of Turkey’s larger cities have contributed to a 'perfect storm' of preferable exchange rates for property investors to seize upon.

Suleyman Akbay, Managing Director of the firm who exclusively specialise in property in Turkey, comments: “Despite the demonstrations that for a short time shook Turkey’s rising star image, latest buying figures coupled with the feedback from our own sales applicants suggest investor sentiment remains positive.

"The Turkish Lira recently dropped to 2.95TL to the GBP, meaning homebuyers are in fact currently set to make better investments, saving thousands of pounds and stretching budgets further.

"Furthermore, anticipated interest rate hikes to bridge the Lira’s drop is expected to add yet more value to bricks and mortar in Turkey, which is already being credited with providing the third highest property growth in the world [source: Knight Frank Global House Price Index].”

The firm, who have been marketing Turkish properties since 2005, attribute ongoing confidence to three factors:

Turkey’s political situation is more stable than surrounding countries. Like many neighbouring nations, Turkey too has experienced political unrest but this has not been motivated by economic woes and their duration and intensity were much shorter, with its main popular tourist regions along the coast untouched.

Bodrum Turkey

Turkey’s location is ideal - and not just for its sunkissed beaches and temperate climes. No, in terms of world travel Turkey is also well-placed to the extent that it was the sixth highest on international tourism arrivals chart last year. There’s no sign of its popularity abating either which has prompted the government to build a new major airport in Istanbul and for local regeneration initiatives to keep resorts like Fethiye top for tourism. And tourism places demand on rental housing stocks.

New laws are making buying property in Turkey easier. Citizens of countries who in the past were prevented from owning property are making the most of a new law which opened up the housing market to them (previously Turkey only allowed residents from countries which allowed Turkish citizens to settle in their own land to invest).

Other incentives include automatic one year residency permits for foreign property owners and the rights of Turkish citizenship after five years. There are also suggestions that the unpopular military clearance requirement on property purchases is also to be scrapped, speeding up the sales process.

#duranadam (standing man) Protest By Erdem Gunduz Spreads Across Turkey

Gezi Park protests were ended by the police but on Monday, Turkish anti-government protesters have found another way to protest : To stand still.

On Monday, a performance artist named Erdem Gündüz quetly walked into sealed-off Taksim Square and started to stand still with no announcements, sign what so ever. He went unnoticed several hours but when he was noticed, his silent protest went viral and he became the new symbol of protests in Turkey. Erdem Gunduz totally stayed 8 hours there standing still and quickly earned himself a nickname "Duran Adam" ("the standing man") and the hashtags #duranadam and #standingman ran a steady stream of comments, together with some photos on the event.

"Maybe the media and people will learn something from this silent standing, this resistance," Gunduz said in an interview with Hurriyet TV. "Maybe they will feel some empathy. I am just an ordinary citizen of this country. We want our voices to be heard."[1]

Original #duranadam (standing man) Protest By Erdem Gunduz

On Tuesday, hundreds more men and women staged copycat protests in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast.[1]

A copycat  #duranadam protest in Istanbul's Kadikoy

[1] - 'Standing man' Erdem Gunduz becomes symbol of anti-government protests in Turkey

Social Media Marketing Agency, fishbat, Reports on Turkey’s Increased Twitter Use in Wake of Political Protests

In response to an article published on The Wall Street Journal, social media marketing agency fishbat discusses the increased use of social media in Turkey to effectively achieve social change.

On June 9, social media marketing agency, fishbat, discusses an article published on The Wall Street Journal which analyzes Turkey’s recent increase in Twitter use due to growing political protests.

According to an article published on The Wall Street Journal, Twitter usage has skyrocketed recently in Turkey. Over two million tweets regarding the recent political protests were sent out last Friday over the course of eight hours. Since the protests started last week, the article says over 3,000 tweets are now being sent out every minute. About 90 percent of tweets about the protests are coming directly from Turkey, as compared to only 30 percent of tweets coming from Egypt during the Egyptian Revolution in 2011.

Many Turks have flocked to social media sites to voice their opinion about the protests, which traditional media outlets have ignored. Instead of publishing front page stories about the protests, the article says newspapers were publishing stories about the Prime Minister being awarded for his anti-smoking efforts.
Scott Darrohn, COO of fishbat, says Twitter can be a great source of information. “During crises, Twitter is often the go-to source for information,” he says. “When phone lines are down and traditional media is lagging, people can rely on Twitter to fish out valid information about what’s going on. I think that’s mainly why many people are using Twitter in Turkey right now.”

Only about 30 percent of people tweeting during the Egyptian revolution in 2011 were actually in Egypt, but around 90 percent of all the Gezi-related tweets came from inside Turkey, and 50 percent came from Istanbul, even though at times 3G and Wifi was unavailable in the area:

Darrohn also says social media could unite the people of Turkey. “Social media promotes collaboration and encourages people to connect around a common idea,” Darrohn says. ”It also allows people to express themselves. Perhaps the increased Twitter use will help people unite and bring about change. The use of social media to achieve change is a growing trend. There have been many recent successes, which only add proof that people are in fact listening. The use of these websites really can make a difference in the end.”
fishbat, Inc. is an award-winning, full-service online marketing firm and social media agency. We’re branding experts dedicated to making your business a part of conversations that are already happening. Through social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, and cutting-edge public relations strategies, we can raise awareness of your brand, strengthen your corporate image, and place your business in front of your ideal audience.