Keith’s weekly property news October 11-10-2021
The sizzling summer heat has given way to a moody and rainy period here in Istanbul. Nonetheless, the property hunt goes full steam ahead. Last week saw us dipping our toes into Beyoglu, Besiktas, Kagithane, Zeytinburnu, the Asian Side and all corners of Şişli. We found surprisingly good deals, but got some scrapes and bruises along the way. It is pretty much inevitable that not a week goes by without some form of conflict or the discovery of some new oddness.
This week I put my property on the market – sorry not CBI compliant, folks; I bought from seller who could not declare full price and I inherited the cap. gains burden- and I started getting lots of calls. As always, there are good agencies and bad. But there is a new k,ind of agency, it if can even be called that – that calls owners who are selling property by themselves. Two of these agencies called me in this short 1 week time. Basically, they offered to sell my property at 10% higher than full asking price. I was intrigued and wanted to know more, not to take advantage of their offer, but to figure out their game. Well, as it turns out, they market these properties in places like Dubai and add on 15-25% and maybe ‘discount’ them down to +10%. To get in on this, you obviously have to agree to pay them the 10%
This is bad on many levels. Terrible for their clients, who they are not even attempting to negotiate on behalf of and at minimum overcharging them massively on the commission. But the worst part is the possible damage it can do to agencies, particularly ones that are nominally foreign ones. Selin informed me that she dealt with several agencies who thought we might be running that kind of scam – and they even asked for a cut if we did a deal together!!! Ludicrous, of course, but you can see how it creates havoc potentially. I did not record the numbers last time, but I will be if these agencies call back. I suspect they have their offices in Dubai and Qater, so probably not much can be done about it. They are super pushy, fast-talking and over-confident. Not at all a pleasant experience doing business with these people.
And I do worry about the possible effect on the market. Probably this strategy works quite well in places like Esenyurt, where prices are very low. I am guessing that these agencies are very active in those neighbourhoods where the owners are relatively poor and susceptible to these scams.
Never a dull moment on the Istanbul property scene.
Filmed a youtube video with Ladislas from Wandering Investor today (www.wanderinginvestor.com . Always great to have him in town. He is the ultimate numbers guy and can spot a good deal when he sees one. Very no-nonsense approach. I recommend you visit his site.
I will be hiring new staff this week and would like to offer a new service to clients who are in buying position or will be so imminently. We will set up a whatsapp group for you (I will also be on it) and we can share properties, information, etc. As many of you know, we already do this, but perhaps newcomers were unaware of that.
Here are a few properties that were sold or had deposits in from past week.
1.3 mil Try, 130 sqm. Şişli central. (partially renovated
700.000Try 120 sqm, Fatih (unrenovated)
675.000Try. 50 sqm Meşrutiyet (unrenovated)
1.7 mil Try. 180 sqm. Meşrutiyet (unrenovated)
400.000 Try. Şişli central.
1 mil Try, 115 sqm, Meşrutiyet (unrenovated).
1.2 mil Try. 90 sqm. Ferikoy. Renovated
Property links distributed during weekly zoom session
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