Turkey : Istanbul prices are surging as buyers remain hungry for turkey after Christmas

Photo credit: Erman Akdogan

Istanbul property prices are surging as buyers remain hungry for Turkey after Christmas.

Values of prime houses in the Turkish capital are rising, according to figures released by Castle Research. "Strong demand for apartments" has driven up prices, says the Turkey Real Estate Investment Outlook 2012 report, with developments proving increasingly popular over the past nine years: in 2003, off plan properties were selling for US $1,500 per square metre; now, those figures have skyrocketed, with real estate fetching $10,000 per square metre.

"No matter how you analyse it, those price increases represent significant market strength," Castle said, adding that the data only represents that top end of the market.

Indeed, Turkey is starting the year in a position of strength, as international buyers keep up their taste for Turkey's property, ready to either resell for profit or rent out and capitalise on the market's buy-to-let demand. Even Turkish companies are making a move toward the capital's real estate, adds Castle, where rates of return are now "higher than they earn on their bank deposits".

Visitors are getting greedy for Turkey, too, with tourism figures also heating up. According to Xinhuanet, the country's Culture and Tourism Minister predicted last week that they will welcome 32.5 million tourists in the coming year. As foreigners keep gobbling up accommodation, it is no surprise that the economy is expected to continue expanding, albeit at a slower rate, with 4 per cent growth forecast by the government for 2012, following last year's boom of 7.5 per cent.

Turkey's coast is seeing the highest number of tourists, becoming stuffed with real estate developments ripe for consumption. This glut of feasting has led to some resale values declining due to an overcrowded plate, but investors that bought before 2005 "are enjoying solid gains", Castle finds, while current buyers can still find rental yields of 5 per cent in popular hotspots.

Meanwhile, in the capital, apartment blocks are seeing rents jump by up to 10 per cent per year, with gross yields firmly in double figures. There was a decline last year in UK and North European buyers biting at Turkey's real estate, but Castle's report reveals that there is a "steady interest [from British and Scandinavian investors] at the upper-middle price bracket, and also from young professional British buyers at the low end of the market."

Christmas may be over, but as Turkey remains piping hot at the beginning of 2012, investor appetites are set to get even stronger.

Source The Move Channel

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USA: Hottest housing markets for 2012 in USA....depends on who you ask.

As the new year begins, the lists of the top housing markets for 2012 are out. The primary economic sectors driving the majority of the “top” housing markets are military bases, large medical centers, large universities and educational facilities. Technology is a major force in some specific cities, such as San Jose, CA and Salt Lake City, UT. And in the midwest, a boom in farm prices is driving housing prices higher.

Check out this list of hottest markets from Realtor Magazine. Most, if not all, are closely associated with military bases, hospitals or universities.

The “hottest” housing markets are based on data such as the anticipated increase in prices, which is generally the most common benchmark used. Texas has cities on virtually every list, with military bases, the oil industry and education the major driving forces there.

Here are a few more of the “hottest housing market” lists for 2012:


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5 Of The Best and Worst for 2012 from MSN

Bloomberg’s list probably has a more balanced approach with their detailed analysis of pricing trends leading into 2012. The trends are not quite so rosy as some lists would have us think. But they do confirm that a rebound and even a little boom is underway in the midwest, driven by rising crop prices.

Wherever you are located, one thing is for sure, every city and town is a housing market unto itself. While major factors such as interest rates and monetary policy can affect the entire nation, the factors that drive home sales activity are pretty much a function of the local employment picture. The better the jobs are locally, the better the housing market is locally.

In spite of the fact that unemployment is still hovering near record levels, cities that have the best job market locally will also tend to be the areas where home buyers are more active, and home prices will tend to rise.

If you are a landlord with rental property, the same theme holds true. Landlords in those markets where the local economy is adding jobs at a faster pace than the national average will be in better shape to cash flow in 2012.

Whether you are a builder, an investor or a home buyer, it’s important to keep the local market economics in mind when making real estate decisions. If you choose the location of your next project, or the location of your next home near the primary sectors driving the local economy, the chances are that your property will be more likely to appreciate instead of losing value.

The 3 primary sectors driving the U.S. economy at present are military, Education, Healthcare. If your local market has a strong presence in these three sectors, it’s a pretty good bet that 2012 will be a good year, even if you didn’t make any of the “hottest market” lists. 

Source Donna Robinson

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UK: property hotspots for 2011

Two new surveys by Zoopla and Halifax look at the towns and cities where prices rose the most last year.

Two new surveys have looked at the property hotspots of 2011 across the UK. Woking in Surrey topped Halifax’s annual report while Wigan in Lancashire headed up property website Zoopla’s list.

Let’s take a look at the two surveys and their methodology in turn.

Halifax survey

Halifax looked at 130 towns across the UK using mortgage offers from its own house price database.

It says that, on average using those calculations, UK house prices fell by 4% between December 2010 and 2011. And the average UK house price in 2011 was £172,400.

Here are the 10 towns that have experienced the highest price rises, according to Halifax:

Town	Average house price 2010	Average house price 2011	Annual change
Woking	£257,590	£299,654	16%
Falkirk	£113,422	£126,548	12%
Ipswich	£151,448	£165,749	9%
Inverness	£154,369	£168,580	9%
Portsmouth	£139,200	£150,901	8%
Crewe	£124,994	£132,873	6%
Worthing	£205,390	£218,269	6%
Bridgend	£118,551	£125,936	6%
Enfield	£229,240	£243,421	6%
Rugby	£150,422	£159,076	6%

Halifax says both Woking and Falkirk’s proximity to big cities – London and either Glasgow or Edinburgh respectively – were major reasons why prices continued to grow.

Kettering in Northamptonshire and Dunfermline were the towns where prices fell the most – by 15% in both cases. Prices in Hartlepool dropped by 14%, while there were drops of 13% in Ayr, Belfast and Ashford in Kent.

Overall, 28% of the towns surveyed saw some increase in house prices over the course of 2011.

Zoopla survey

Property website Zoopla examined price changes across Britain’s cities (note that it doesn’t have prices for Northern Ireland) using its price estimator tool, which crunches various numbers to produce an estimate of house prices.

It says that the average price in Britain was down by just 0.38% in 2011, or £84.

Here are the top 10 best-performing cities, according to Zoopla:

City	Average house price 2010	Average house price 2011	Annual change
Wigan	£125,460	£132,517	5.62%
Aberdeen	£201,070	£209,706	4.30%
Ipswich	£178,642	£185,508	3.84%
Cardiff	£182,547	£188,955	3.51%
Edinburgh	£220,515	£227,516	3.17%
Dundee	£144,469	£148,315	2.66%
Plymouth	£162,595	£166,887	2.64%
York	£215,352	£220,595	2.43%
Bournemouth	£219,073	£224,315	2.39%
Cambridge	£302,848	£308,914	2.00%

The worst-performing cities were Newcastle, with a drop of 5.51%, Leicester (4.61%) and Bolton (4%).

Scotland was the only one of the three nations to record an average price rise, with prices going up by 6.73%, well above the British average. By contrast, prices in England fell by 0.75% and in Wales by 0.11%.

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