Land ownership in Turkey

This includes 38,623,661 square metres (415,741,630 sq ft) of land valued at US$10.4 billion, mostly by German, British and Greek citizens.

This trend coincided with the influx of refugees from lands lost for the Ottoman Empire, and the migrants often saw themselves having to buy property from foreigners in their own country.

[clarification needed] A partial about-face by the Committee of Union and Progress, simultaneous to the outbreak of the World War I in Europe, was one of the causes for the deterioration of relations between Turkey and the Allied powers Britain, France and Italy.

[citation needed] However, following steps taken by Turkey's main opposition party CHP, the modifications brought by the 2003 by-law were declared as void by the Constitutional Court of Turkey on 26 April 2005, in a decision to enter into effect as of 27 July 2005 and the purchase of real estate by foreign nationals was suspended until a modified law dated 7 January 2006 was brought into effect.

[5] It was also observed that, during this 2-year period, the districts most favoured by foreign buyers were Alanya, Fethiye, Didim, Bodrum, Kuşadası along the coastline, as well as Ürgüp in Cappadocia.

[7] Turkey's real estate agents have organised themselves to demarcate the definition and the boundaries of their profession and to discourage occasional and non-professional intermediaries.

[8] Information on overseas buyers provided by the First Economic Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy in London for 2006 was as follows:[9] The most recent data provided by the Ministry, covering the period from 2002 (when the incumbent government came into office) to 2008 indicates a total of 63,085 land lots sold to 73,103 foreign private persons, extending to a total area of 25,350,361 square meters.