To find the best real estate deal in Istanbul, you need a property that meets your specific needs, fits within your budget, and aligns with your initial goals. In this article, we will cover essential steps to start your search effectively and identify the ideal deal. We will also provide examples and general advice on what makes a deal truly optimal. Steps to Take Before Searching for the Perfect Deal:
1-Select your request
If you're buying property in Istanbul as an investment (which accounts for 90% of foreign purchases), it's crucial to understand that the key factors are capital appreciation and rental yield, not the apartment's size, room count, or view. Based on our extensive experience, successful investors focus on these two primary factors rather than getting caught up in secondary details that might be more relevant to someone buying a home to live in.
For example, investing in a 50-square-meter property under construction in the city center could offer a much better return than buying a 250-square-meter apartment on the outskirts of Istanbul or a large villa for the same price.
However, If your goal is to buy a property for personal use (which represents 3% of foreign purchases in Istanbul), you should prioritize the property's size, room count, and its suitability for your family's needs. Consider factors like proximity to schools, universities, and transportation.
For example, a 3-bedroom apartment with a living room in Beylikdüzü, close to major roads and transportation, might be a better fit for a family of five than a smaller 2-bedroom apartment near the city center, a 1-bedroom property in the heart of the city, or even a large villa on the outskirts.
Note: The examples provided, while they may seem straightforward, are based on real choices made by well-educated, high-profile buyers who initially believed these options were ideal for them. However, many of these buyers discovered later that their decisions did not fully meet their needs. If you're buying a vacation home (which accounts for 7% of foreign property purchases in Istanbul), prioritize finding a property that perfectly suits your needs in terms of location, size, and view. Many clients find that they regret their choice if the property doesn’t align with their vacation expectations. Sometimes, a property in a less central location may better meet your needs and budget while offering the desired view
Note: Clients often choose properties based on a good-looking sales representative, rather than a thorough, objective evaluation of options. We will discuss how to avoid this pitfall shortly.
2- Study the market well
When buying property in Istanbul, clients should first conduct an objective and impartial study of the city's neighborhoods and areas. Next, they should evaluate the options that align with their specific needs and goals.
How to Study the Market Objectively and Impartially?
This is a very important matter that the vast majority of clients ignore, many clients mistakenly believe that studying the market involves contacting dozanes of brokers and submitting a request, which may not even be available. Instead, it's crucial to first understand the market demand before setting your budget. Without this step, your expectations might not align with actual market conditions, whether they exceed or fall short of your budget.
Example: If you’re looking for a residential property with two bedrooms and a living room, and your budget is $200,000, it’s unrealistic to expect to find such a property in the city center. Properties that meet these specifications in the city center would typically cost at least double your budget. Contacting multiple brokers might result in numerous misleading and fake offers regarding location, size, and price.
To study the market objectively and impartially, focus on understanding the neighborhoods, transportation connections, and proximity to key facilities such as universities, schools, medical centers, and entertainment options, rather than just looking at specific property offers. This approach requires time for research, reading, and analysis, but it will give you a clear understanding of the market. It will also help you assess whether the brokers you’re working with are offering genuine, professional advice or merely making claims.
It may seem easier to contact dozens brokers and review various random offers and project. However, this approach often leads to confusion when you visit Istanbul, as you may not have a clear understanding of the city's neighborhoods from the start. Note: By investing time to thoroughly research Istanbul's areas and their characteristics, you can effectively choose the best property for yourself, even if you haven’t yet visited the city.
3- Determine your budget roughly
While defining your needs and studying the market are essential, setting a budget should not be overly restrictive. It’s important to stay flexible and consider opportunities that may be slightly above or below your initial budget. Example: If you plan to invest $450,000 for Turkish citizenship but find a property priced at $550,000 that offers a 35% discount from the market value, sticking strictly to your budget might mean missing out on a significant return.
By rulling on for the better deal, you could benefit from a 35% return on investment, in addition to potential rental income and capital appreciation upon resale.
The ideal deal you seek is unlikely to be a pre-packaged offer with a set price. For instance, while two apartments, each with two rooms and a living room, at a price of 400 thousand dollars and suitable for Turkish nationality. It is certainly possible that this will be a good deal, but we mean in general that the optimal deals are not like this. The arrangement is for one property, for example, at a price of 466 thousand dollars, in addition to expenses and taxes of approximately 13 thousand dollars, but the real price of this same property in the market is 600 thousand dollars, including taxes and other expenses.
4- Execute what you planned
After defining your needs, researching Istanbul’s neighborhoods and laws, and setting your budget, you’ve completed the planning phase. The next step is to act on this plan. Many clients, however, delay taking practical steps, which can waste all the effort and time invested in the planning process.
Some may find it surprising that delaying action can waste the effort and time spent on planning. They might believe that this information will be useful later when they are ready to implement their plan.
There is no doubt that the market is full of variables, and what is ideal today may not be ideal tomorrow. Investment conditions change, so delaying action can lead to selecting less suitable properties as market conditions evolve.
In fact, this point is considered extremely crucial because the longer the decision to purchase the property is delayed, the more conflicting ideas will occur that the customer will not be able to evaluate correctly, especially if you haven’t studied the market impartially.
Postponing the idea from one period to another is actually very harmful to those wishing to establish an investment in the Turkish real estate market. Postponing means losing the opportunity to seize the price with an additional discount, which means new laws in leasing and taxes. This can lead to lower expected returns and make it difficult to create a clear, predictable investment plan.
What Makes a Deal Ideal:
- This transaction must meet the customer's demand.
- It should be priced at least 10% below the market value.
- It should involve no more than one real estate broker.
- It should be unique, with few other properties offering the same features and price.
The more these criteria are met, the better the deal.
To learn about the most important opportunities available at any time, you can contact us and get a free direct consultation.
