The Turkish State Gazette published on Friday the new amendment on terms for the citizenship through purchasing of real estate, which also includes purchasing under-construction properties where it was limited to completed properties only.
Under the new law, a foreigner can acquire Turkish nationality when buying real estate in an unfinished housing project of at least US $ 250,000 or the equivalent in Turkish or foreign currency by submitting the purchasing contract to a notary, where it limited to the completed ones only.
According to the Turkish Anatolia Agency, the foreigner is required not to sell the property purchased within 3 years, and pledge to the property registries not to transfer ownership to other persons during the mentioned period.
On September 19, Turkey reduced the purchase price of the property granting the citizenship from $ 1 million to $ 250,000, with the expectation that the facilities would contribute to further recovery of the real estate market in Turkey.
Last October, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced that it would open offices to facilitate the process of obtaining a long-term residence permit for foreign investors.
The ministry said the offices would monitor applicants' conditions, support investors, provide advice, and track requests.
According to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, foreigners want to be Turkish citizens need to invest $ 500,000, buy property worth $ 250,000 or provide jobs for at least 50 Turkish citizens.
According to the newspaper "Arab 21", the economic researcher Ahmed Musabah, the new facilities provided by the Turkish government for granting citizenship through buying a property for several reasons, most notably, encourage real estate projects under construction, and increase demand.
"The government may have found that the requirement to obtain citizenship through buying a completed property has adversely affected the under construction real estate projects, which has led to simplification of procedures to overcome that obstacle."
"The properties sales to foreigners achieved a big boom during October, an increase of 134.4% compared to the same month in 2017, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute."
He added: "Turkish statistics showed that 164 thousand properties were sold in Turkey during the October, a record increase in the total sales of real estate (Turks and foreigners) amounted to 19% compared to the same month last year.
The economic researcher stressed that the facilities approved by the Turkish government, coupled with the low exchange rate of the Turkish lira, the cohesion of the Turkish economy and increased confidence of foreign investors in its strength, especially after its ability to recover from attacks during the past period, encouraged foreigners to buy the property in Turkey has increased significantly over the past months.