Istanbul construction boom fails to quench demand

Last month investors from around the world, as surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers in its Emerging Trends in European Real Estate report, said that Istanbul is currently the best city in Europe for investment opportunities in the fields of new developments and acquisitions, and second best for opportunities to increase returns on existing investments. However, in coming second Istanbul had the same score as first placed Munich at 6.08, so should really have been tied for first place.

One particularly significant trend that came from the responses was the consensus that although Istanbul is currently experiencing a construction boom, construction is not fast enough to bite into the widening shortage of housing. Commercial spaces are also in short supply in many areas and some segments. We have heard this from many developers and agents on the ground in Istanbul.

This is surely a double whammy of investment potential, because you have room for growth in the construction industry, which will generate more and more revenues into the economy, and this in turn will generate more demand for housing. Such self-perpetuating cycles come along very rarely in property investment, and when they do every investor should carefully look at the opportunity and possibly look at it with a view of "why wouldn't I invest here?".

That is if people haven't already decided that from the fact that Istanbul is constantly being named one of the hottest investment opportunities on the global market. Back to the PWC report; in first place for new property acquisitions Istanbul beat off London, Munich, Stockholm, Berlin and Warsaw, and for development opportunities it beat off London, Munich, Warsaw, Zurich and Stockholm.

Source: PropertyShowrooms.com