Following the global economic turbulence of the past couple of years, investors have been looking for destinations to achieve the higher rental yields seen over the course of the past 10 years. With traditional property investment markets such as Spain, Dubai, France and Italy all still struggling to emerge from the recession, new destinations such as Turkey have risen to prominence on the back of consistently strong rental yields driven by increased demand.

Turkey, it would be fair to say, has reversed the trend economic lead over the past two years. Strong increases in tourism have resulted in increased demand for property throughout the major destinations such as Bodrum, Fethiye, Alanya and Altinkum and indeed many other resorts along Turkey’s beautiful Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines. However away from the resort’s, there has been considerable growth in the Istanbul real estate market web population growth of approximately 400,000 new residents each year has resulted in an unprecedented demand for property.

Such has been the growth in demand for property in Istanbul, that the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers and urban land Institute report entitled ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe’ rated Istanbul after their number-one property investment for city development prospects in 2010. With large numbers of new residents coming to Istanbul to study and work on a long-term basis, the new demand has had a positive effect for both residential and commercial real estate in Istanbul.

Early bird investors have been quick to capitalise on the new opportunity, and indeed many have already benefited from strong and increasing rental yields throughout the capital region in the past few years. Demand for property in Istanbul is now also starting to benefit the capital’s suburbs, and destinations such as Haramidere and Maslak have seen new property developments announced in recent times.

With the country as a whole benefiting from strong and increased levels of tourism, the property market in Istanbul seems set to prosper for the foreseeable future. With developers offering new projects on highly favourable terms including long-term rental guarantees and low initial deposits, the opportunity for investing in property in Istanbul is current.

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