Keith’s Weekly Property News April 17 -2022
This week everything will be abbreviated, including our zoom session, which I will have to end at 21.15 sharp.
Basically, as I am sure everyone knows, it has been announced that the CNI amount will be raised from 250K to 400K USD. Beyond that there is not much we know for sure, nor will we til the decision is published in the Official Gazette, along with all the relevant details.
There has been much speculation, which essentially centers around 3 points:
Will people who have their Doviz Alim Belgesi (Or exchange certificate from the Central Bank) automatically be accepted in the 250K USD regime. Keep in mind, to get this document, you already need to have the property details of the property or properties you intend to buy.
It is believed, but not confirmed, that people who have applied for the “certificate of conformity” will continue on with their citizenship process without any effect or change. I also believe this to be true.
Whether or not there will be some future date extension for people to complete the CBI program, or a deadline. I am very unsure of this, leaning slightly towards the opinion that there will not be, though hopefully I will be proven wrong.
I repeat that the above items are speculation. There is even speculation that the decision will be reversed or not published at all. I am highly skeptical of this.
Unfortunately, there is not much we can do apart from wait for all the details to be published, likely this week, but again not guaranteed to be.
By way of advice, I cannot really even offer clients much. We have clients who are travelling to Istanbul this week. With quite a bit of luck, we may be able to beat the clock, especially if there is some kind of extended deadline.
One thing for sure is you should be careful about agencies or developers trying to get you to sign onto deals very quickly with the guarantee that they can get you the deed ina few days and apply for the passport. This is a clear falsehood. No one can make such guarantees. There are time farmes for each step, from wiring money to securing valuation reposrts to getting an appointment to close at the registry. Yes, there aqre ways we can TRY to expedite all of the above, but guaranteeing it is just misleading.
For those who really want to close out their CBIs the secondary market is the slow way to go. That is why we have taken steps to source deals from developers, which are in theory faster. However, if that kind of property does not appeal to you, we understand. I suppose in any event, the practical thing to do is to carry on your property searches.
We are currently working one to one with many clients who have their POAs and Turkish accounts funded or at least open, in the belief that it may be possible to get them over the line.
Everyone has to make their own decisions regarding what is the best step for them. Getting a POA issued remotely? Doing the same with the account? Buying online, and so forth. Some will also be in whether it is 250K or 400K, so me advising people in all cases does not seem reasonable as everyone has much different motivations, budgets, timelines and buying preferences.
If you really do want to get it done and done fast, reach out to me and I will try to offer quick but safe solutions. For example, we may want to introduce escape clauses with developers, meaning that if the amount gets raised to 400K mid-process, we have the right to have deposit refunded. In many cases, it may not be accepted, but we can at least try. This will not work, period, on the secondary market.
So, in a way, folks, that is it for updates at the moment. Tonight , we will discuss in more detail how we may want to proceed, in theory, at such a time.
We also have the highly problematic “dangling” CBI, where the client has purchased maybe one or two properties, but has not reached the 250K mark. Obviously, we are leaving no stone unturned for these clients.
Property sales in March were very high, the highest number on record at over 130.000. Turks view property as the only hedge in these uncertain inflationary times. I expect one of the original aims of the CBI, to sell the over-supply of new builds on the periphery of Istanbul or other cities, has largely become superfluous. The need for hard currency no doubt still exists, but we must also consider that there are many non-CBI buyers of Turkish property and the proliferation of new passports being given largely to individuals from a few nations, was becoming a bit of a political hot potato. Nonetheless, there is little doubt that foreign buying will continue, though the CBI numbers will likely drop significantly.
Unfortunately this week we will be doing without a staple of our weekly zoom sessions, the presentation ofm property picks. This is being done mostly on a 1 to 1 basis, but we hope to return to our original format next week. This week we will do more Q&A and let Aybike, CBI lawyer, share a few thoughts. I thank everyone for ntheir patience in waiting for me to get to their whatsapp messages this past week. I believe I returned to everyone. However, if you are really in buying postion, ping me again tonight and we will do extra work and assign staff to your request.
Properties will be distributed in meeting. If you like, PM me and I will send them to you directly.
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