The Turkish citizenship by investment scheme has been more popular than expected, so far a total of $1.67 billion has been raised through property investments, since the launch of the scheme in 20017. In 2018, Turkey reduced the minimum required investment from $1m to just $250K to attract foreign investment.
According to Turkey land registry office (TKGM) , the certificate of eligibility for Turkish citizenship was issued for 6,694 foreign nationals from 101 countries who acquired real estate in this country from 2017 to date and citizenship granted to 6085 foreigners in the last year according to the report
Those investing in Turkish citizenship scheme are mostly from Arab world mainly Iran, Iraq and Afghan nationals.
Assuming each investor met the minimum of $250,000 in buying a property, this would have raised $1.67 billion invested in property market till date for Turkey, surpassing Malta and other Caribbean CIPs. Despite Turkey having weak passport with no visa free access to EU schengen area, United Kingdom, or Canada, clearly setting an example that CIP is not all about visa free travel or passport power.
Turkey is the only country among CIPs that has a trillion dollar economy and its GDP is projected to grow to $3 trillion by 2022. The Turkish lira sank to historic low in 2019 and still hasnt recovered making it cheaper to invest in the property market to many foreigners.
Once the certificate of eligibility is issued for investment, the final decision is taken by Ministry of Interior which recommends to presidents office for granting of citizenship. All citizenship procedures can be carried out through power of attorney and completed in as little as six months. Last year Invest Turkey announced they have greatly simplified citizenship scheme in an interview to CIP journal
A developer in Turkey has hinted that Turkey may increase the prices to $500,000 to keep up with the demand.
According to the developer, “Turkish authorities are aware of the rise in demand, and we expect them to raise the minimum real estate investment amount to $500,000 by 2020″
This is because the minimum amount for citizenship by investment is well below the limits compared to other countries that offers Golden visas, said the developer.
Since the introduction of the citizenship scheme, house sales to foreigners has picked up and at highest levels by the end of the year.
Iraqi citizens bought 7 596 houses from Turkey in 2019. The followers of Iraq were Iran with 5 423 house sales, Russia with 2_893 house sales, Saudi Arabia with 2 208 house sales and Afghanistan with 2 191 house sales.
The Turkish passport has recently secured 66th spot in world passport rankings in a recent study. Among the CIP rankings, Turkey CBI scheme was listed as sixth best citizenship by investment program in the world for 2020.
