Real Estate Global property giant enters the Turkish market

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Global property giant enters the Turkish market
International Realty Plus real estate franchising and Turkey’s Liman Holding launched IRP Turkey, their joint venture, in Istanbul yesterday. International Realty Plus currently operates in six...

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International Realty Plus real estate franchising and Turkey’s Liman Holding launched IRP Turkey, their joint venture, in Istanbul yesterday.

International Realty Plus currently operates in six countries. In the United States its annual turnover totalled $50 million last year.
Hüseyin Altaş, chief executive of IRP Turkey, said Liman Holding decided to import IRP franchising brand to Turkey in order to make use of existing opportunities in Turkey’s growing real estate market. "At present, 95 percent of real estate transactions take place through individual real estate agencies that do no work under any franchising brand. Also the low mortgage to gross national product ratio shows the potential in Turkey," Altaş said.
Mortgage to gross national product ratio in Turkey stands at 3.3 percent, whilst the European Union average was 41 percent. In Greece, the corresponding figure was 17 percent and in Italy 12 percent.
IRP Turkey will largely focus on marketing its activities for international investors, Altaş said. "Turkey has become an attractive country for international property investors in recent years. So far sales have largely focused on the southern parts of the country, such as Kaş, Kalkan, Bodrum and Didim. But, in fact, we have reached the point where even selling units in Batman for British investors is possible," Altaş claimed.
Expanding to neighbors
IRP Turkey is currently investigating expansion opportunities from Turkey to nearby countries. "We are evaluating opportunities in Azerbaijan and Russia. In Libya we are gathering data on the firms that could execute our projects. Our goal is to become active in these countries by 2010," he said.
Over the first year of operations, IRP Turkey aims to reach a business volume of $700 million and open 50 franchise offices. "The number of residential units in Turkey currently stands at some 15.5 million, some 3 million of these being located in the Marmara region," he said. "There is a notable demand for new residential units in Turkey, meaning serious potential in the sector. This is the reason we invested in this sector and brought IRP to Turkey."
Although real estate sales volume in Turkey dropped from $35 billion to $20 billion over 2008 due to the global crisis, the value of residential units in the market is gradually increasing, Altaş said. "This development reflects the number of branded projects in the market."
Liman Holding expects to finish the sales of its newest project, the 35 million euro Eviva Residence in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü by the end of the month. "We have sold half of the units to U.K. investors in one month. The project will be complete by December 2010."

Didim starts war on tourist hustlers PDF Print E-mail
Didim Local Governor Ali Katırcı warned shop owners in the Aegean resort town that they would be punished or even have their shops closed for disturbing or hustling tourists in their shops.

Upon Katırcı’s order, a team was formed last year to fight hustling in the town, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The team included undercover policemen equipped with cameras. The officers continuously monitored and investigated the bazaars and photographed shop personnel hustling tourists.
Punishments
Following the team’s report, the local governorship fined the offending shop owners and temporarily closed down the shops. Last year more than 20 shops and restaurants were closed for 15 days.
Pointing out that they would not tolerate hustling this year too, Katırcı called on shop owners not to disturb tourists, otherwise their shops would be closed. "We were successful in fighting hustling last year. With fines and closure punishments, hustling cases decreased. Our aim is to stop hustling from negatively affecting tourism. We are not glad about sealing off shops, but we have to carry out the law. I strongly suggest shop and restaurant owners not get into these kinds things to disturb tourists," said Katırcı.