We have nowhere to live ourselves! Turks worry about mass buying of housing by Russians

Yelena Biryuleva

Due to the influx of foreigners, the price of real estate has increased almost 5 times over the past two years, which exceeds the average income of citizens in Turkey.

A few days ago, Novye Izvestia reported that according to the Turkish statistical office Turkstat, in October 2022, Russian citizens became leaders among foreign buyers of real estate in Turkey, overtaking Iranians, Iraqis and Ukrainians. Our compatriots have purchased about 2,000 houses and apartments in this country.

However, this, at first glance, a joyful event turned out to be overshadowed by the reaction of local residents: signatures are already being collected in Antalya, a resort so beloved by Russians, for a ban on the sale and rental of housing to foreigners. Nearly 12,000 people have signed the petition so far.

Local residents complain that it has become almost impossible for them to buy or rent housing in Antalya: over the past 2 years, rent has increased by 395%, and foreigners have already bought every third property there and are constantly raising prices, even evicting tenants for more profitable tenants.

In addition, the Russians and Ukrainians are not only raising the already high prices of housing, but even the number of Russian-speaking realtors already outnumber the number of Turkish agents with licenses, according to the Turkish edition of Hurriet Daily News.

“Against the backdrop of a wave of immigration, the number of Ukrainians and Russians involved in real estate transactions in Antalya has reached 10,000. These people continue to disrupt the market by creating their own groups of hundreds of people on social networks. They have no experience, but they quickly began to control the Antalya real estate market. We cannot get into these groups because they do not accept us,” the petition says.

According to the authors of the petition, about 200 thousand foreigners now live in the city - this is 25% of all residents of Antalya.