Real Estate in Turkey

Buying Property In Turkey

First Published Date: Feb 16, 2010

Ownership of the real estate in Turkey, comes under the reciprocity principle for a foreign individual. Those countries which allow the Turkish citizens or legal entities to own property in their country, only their citizens are allowed to purchase real estate in Turkey. Those countries are the United States, Canada, Latin America, Africa and most of countries in Europe.

The price for the real estate has increased after the relaxation in the ownership restrictions for the foreigners under the Law No. 5444. a foreigner can purchase a maximum of 30 hectares (74 acres) of real estate in Turkey. More than 73,000 foreigners have bought real estate in Turkey. Buyers who are mostly from England, Germany and Greece have poured US$10.4 billion into the real estate market over five years (2002-2007). The foreign buyer has no restrictions to buy 10% of property and land in officially zoned areas like cities, resorts and towns etc. Ownership of real estate in Turkey, is prohibited for foreigner in the rural areas and also the immediate vicinity of a military zone.

There are many rules and regulations to be followed by the foreigner investor and the process become little tricky to handle. A lot of real estate agents, brokers and also property advisors are available to guide their customers. A real estate agent normally charges 3% from the buyer and 3% from the seller so the total of that becomes 6% of the whole amount. The registration process takes around nine days to finish. The “title deed of transfer” is released in about three to nine months, after the application is processed to the court. The registration and notary fees, title deed charges, and including the agent’s commission is paid by the buyer and the seller is suppose to pay the stamp duty fee along with the commission of the agent. The roundtrip transaction cost around 9.85% = 10.75 % and it also include the fees of the lawyer, notary public, registration, taxes and agents’ fees. The real estate in Turkey is subject to a change of price after one year, five years and ten years according to the latest available data or house price index, inflation is not adjusted here. As for the annual percentage, change in the house price or index from (2005-2006) or the latest data available on the price index upon yearly basis. After five years the annual percentage change in house price index and house prize is from 2001-2006 and then the price change after every ten year is from the index 1996. A landlord can expect gross annual rental income which is expressed as a percentage of price of purchase of the property.

It is highly recommended to have a solicitor to do the conveyancing, though legally there is no such requirement. For buyers of the real estate in Turkey, the government authorises an interpreter for the notarization of the property. The buyer and the seller’s presence is mandatory at the entry of the title. The economic recession has hit hard the Turkey’s exports manufacturing sectors and the logistic market is badly affected. This has resulted into the real estate in Turkey slowed down in the line with the rest of world. The consumer confidence is again picking up and retail turn over is growing although the growth rate is slower than the last year. Most of the buyers or occupiers of Turkish real estate are re-locating themselves mostly on the less expensive locations like Asian side of Istanbul.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Feb 13, 2010.

MoneySense Publishes Its Flawed 2015 Canada's Best Credit Cards Rankings

How Accurate Are MoneySense’s Credit Card Rankings?

First Published Date: September 13, 2015

Canada’s popular personal finance magazine MoneySense recently releases its annual credit card rankings for 2015. The five best credit cards were chosen for these six categories: cash-back cards, low-rate cards, retail rewards cards, travel rewards cards, student cards, and business cards.

However, the factors that MoneySense used to determine the best cards for Canadians are inaccurate and out of touch from reality. I will discuss only a few important points to show you why these rankings are flawed and also will give you links to some other rankings that I believe did a better job ranking Canada’s best credit cards.

Why These Rankings Are Flawed

– The biggest problem is that the assumption was made that you will be spending $2000 per month on credit cards. To spend $24,000 on credit cards annually, you will need to have at least $100,000 annual income, but even it’s hard on a 100K salary to spend that much. So it is safe to say that an average $150,000 salary is required to make sense of these rankings and if MoneySense thinks that is what most Canadians make they are out of touch.

– Even if we say everyone is Canada is spending $2,000 monthly on credit cards, the MoneySense ratings are wrong in terms of getting the best value back on your rewards. If you use this credit card tool to plug in $2,000 monthly spending, you will get very different results.

– The wrong information was provided for some credit cards. For example, if you look at insurance benefits for cards like WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard or American Express Gold Rewards Cards, according to MoneySense these cards have trip cancellation, but in reality these cards do not have trip cancellation; they have trip interruption insurance, which is a totally different thing.

– The 1st and 2nd cards in the travel category are the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard and the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Neither of these cards should be first and second, as they are missing major elements that you need to have in a travel card, such as trip cancellation insurance and concierge services. Also, the big problem with the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard is that you are limited to fly only WestJet on limited destinations that WestJet covers.

– The worst picks are in the retail rewards category. Here you will find credit cards that are not even considered to compete by other best credit cards ratings sites. For example, if you use the credit card tools I mentioned in the article below, you will see that these top credit cards stay on the bottom of the list. So that makes you wonder why Rogers credit card is # 1 in this category. Rogers credit card is #1 retail rewards card is Canada – really?

How to Pick Your Best Credit Cards

Research and gather information from various sources, including the credit card providers’ own sites and make decisions based on your own circumstances. There are tools, calculators, and articles you can use to help you and I mentioned some of these in the Credit Cards/Rewards Cards Section on A Dawn Journal to help you with your research.

Also, you can check other sites’ best credit cards ratings. For example, the Greedy Rates ratings below is a good one and more aligned to reality.

Do Canadians Pay More?

Canadians Still Paying More . But Not Much More

First Published Date: Aug 2, 2009

Canadian shoppers are used to something of a price difference between shopping domestically and journeying south of the border to pick up some purchases. For various reasons, the dollar goes further in the States even when taking into account the exchange rate, and this has been known to drive some Canadians to visit family in the States, just happening to do a lot of high-value shopping while there. But just recently this price gap has leveled considerably, according to a study carried out recently. It has not closed entirely by any means, but to see it narrowing is positive both for shoppers and for stores.

Of course, as with any financial story it isn’t just a matter of saying “things have improved to some extent” and leaving the statement there. There is considerably more to it, not least the fact that the findings of the study are contentious, having been opposed by the Consumers Association of Canada. The report itself was unveiled by Doug Porter, Deputy Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets. In their study last year, BMO found an average price difference between selected products that stood in favor of the US shopper to the tune of eighteen per cent. This year, with the American economy having suffered severe blows, that gap has receded to 6.8 per cent.

Porter puts a lot of this narrowing down to the strengthening in the loonie, which has comparatively thrived while the US dollar has struggled. As the value of the loonie rises against its Southern counterpart, Canadians have comparably more buying power, and it is normal for prices to fall so that business does not go South.

Nonetheless it still depends very much on what your planned purchases are. For example, if you want to drop into Starbucks and enjoy a latte (tall, nonfat) then for the first time it is cheaper to do so on this side of the border. If you are buying a camera, expect to pay slightly more than your Southern neighbor, but only to the tune of about 2%, which is considerably less than once it was. However if you have your heart set on a chainsaw, you might be well advised to check import costs, as they are still 25% more expensive in Canada. Going to the US and bringing it back across the border might have its own problems, too.

Porter insists that this is a sign that Canada’s stronger anti-recession policies have made things better for the Canadian consumer. The Canadian consumer, represented by the Consumers Association of Canada for the purposes of this article, disagrees. Its president Bruce Cran states that there are huge disparities on a number of other products, not least magazines, which differ in price by a massive 28 per cent – double what the report says. The Association argues that as things stand, Canadian retailers are failing to pass on savings they have made importing US-made products to their customers. Nonetheless, the BMO posits that this will always be the case due to institutional differences, but that the gap is narrowing.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Aug 2, 2009.

Meet Canada’s First No-Fee World Elite Master Card

President Choice Launches World Elite Master Card

First Published Date: September 20, 2015

World Elite is the Elite series of credit cards from MasterCard that usually have a $100 to $150 annual fee. So when you see no-frills financial institution President Choice (owned by Loblaw) launching a world elite MasterCard without any annual fee, it’s bound to peak everyone’s interest.

The card has no annual fee, but it’s missing lots of features you would expect from world elite series cards as well. There is no sign-up bonus and it does not offer insurances such as Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption insurance. However, it does have Travel Emergency Medical Insurance and Car Rental Collision/Loss Damage Waiver Insurance.

This is the only credit card that lets you earn 30 PC points for every $1 spent at PC stores (such as Loblaw, No Frills) and Shoppers Drug Mart. The earning rate is also 30 points per dollar at Pharmaprix, PC travel, PC mobile (excluding PC mobile prepaid services), per litre of Esso Supreme (Octane 91) and Esso SUPREME+ (Octane 93).

An interesting twist is that the PC Financial World Elite MasterCard offers 24/7 concierge service and this is unexpected from a no-fee card. Unlike Visa’s elite series Visa Infinite cards, which provide concierge service by VISA itself, World Elite MasterCard does not provide its own concierge service in Canada. So if you see World Elite MasterCard in Canada has concierge service, it’s provided either by a 3rd party or the issuer’s own concierge service team. For example, WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard does not have concierge service, but BMO World Elite MasterCard comes with concierge service provided by BMO.

When I called PC MasterCard customer service and asked who is providing the concierge service for PC Financial World Elite MasterCard, it was obvious the rep had no idea what a concierge service is and how it works. He gave me hilariously wrong info to make me get off the phone. His idea of concierge service is when you go to a hotel; there will be a concierge service there to help you – which is totally wrong info.

It’s obvious that either President Choice Financial has not trained their reps well or I unfortunately came across a rep who had not done his home work. That’s another thing you need to keep in mind when you are getting something for free that usually comes with a price: You may not get top-notch customer service like other elite series credit cards that come with a price tag.

If you hold the PC World MasterCard, PC will upgrade you to World Elite without hard credit inquiries as long as you meet their World Elite MasterCard income requirement (70k Min Income or $120k household).

How To Make Money In Global Real Estate In A Bad Economy

Making Money In Global Real Estate

Published Date : March 11, 2010

The current state of the global economy may seem gloomy to most of us, but there are still many opportunities to make money in every industry, including in real state. As some would say, there are always going to be successful and unsuccessful business ventures. This is true wherever there is a marketplace, as it is a necessary fact of a healthy market. But there are ways of maximizing your chances of being successful, and paying close attention to these key points of interest is even more necessary when the economy is in a slump. And this fact applies to real estate as much as any industry.

Part of the problem facing real estate developers in the current state of the economy is the increased difficulty in getting consumers to spend their hard earn money – not just on you, but at all. In order to be successful, in order to out-compete the competition and secure more profit, real estate developers are going to have to become just as innovative in the marketing of their products, but also in developing them. Those who manage to become more innovative will find success; those who do not, will not.

There are several specific areas that real estate developers can focus in on in order to get ahead of the competition. The first area is information. Real estate developers that are going to be successful around the globe are going to have to become more informed and demand more information throughout the industry. As a directly related point to that, successful developers will want more information, and more transparency in the industry – and not just for themselves, but also for their clients. Another related area to information is vague promises and hyperbolic information on developer websites and in brochures. An increased skepticism must come with a deeper focus on information, and this will be a good thing as fewer empty promises will result in better professional relationships.

The next area that future successful real estate developers will want to improve on is understanding the health of the overall financial systems before entering the market in the first place. This means exploring financial data and trends, and analyzing the stability and appropriateness of regulation within the financial system. The current economic crisis reaffirmed something that many businessmen and women have forgotten: without a healthy financial system supporting the economy, no industry is going to be safe from a bust. Therefore any successful real estate developer is going to need to keep an eye out on the health of the financial system.

Another area where developers will want to focus in on is specific pricing trends in real estate throughout the recent bubble and burst. The successful developer will not just want to seek a substantial discount over 2007 pricing highs, but will also want to pass on that discount onto potential buyers. This increases the buying rate of properties, and will most certainly help in the recovery. The new global real estate developer will also want to negotiate on prices that seem still too artificially high, especially when it comes to high-end, high-risk properties. And as a related note, any developer that wants to be successful will increase his or her chances by avoiding areas that run the risk of either an oversupply of real estate or copycat developments. This has a direct effect on pricing instability and unfairness at a very local level.

There is one last key area where developers will want to focus a lot of attention on as global real estate recovers from the current crisis, and that is real estate associated with larger global concerns. The most prominent of the larger global concerns right now is probably environmental in nature. Therefore the more successful developers will want to focus on developing and marketing real estate that offers a more environmentally sound or sustainable approach to living. And as an added bonus, environmentally friendly businesses are likely to receive added regulatory support or even subsidy from government agencies around the world.

There is a lot of information to be understood in these areas by real estate developers, no doubt about that. But the changing landscape of both our financial and regulatory sectors as well as the real estate industry as a whole will effectively demand that real estate developers be very cognizant of these areas. It is therefore a good idea for developers to start working on exploring and understanding these areas, as well as making what they learn a vital part of their development and marketing plans. Remember, in the end, a global real estate recovery is a necessary aspect in the broader global economic recovery. Anything that helps global real estate helps the global economy. And vice versa.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Mar 11, 2010.