Turkish property prices are soaring

RENTS and property prices in Istanbul were never low to begin with. In 2015 a Qatari businessman, thought to be acting as a middleman for the country’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, spent over $100m for a villa on the banks of the Bosphorus, the strait that divides Turkey’s biggest city between Asia and Europe. Earlier this year, another mansion, formerly the home of a sex-cult leader recently sentenced to nearly 900 years in prison for a range of crimes, sold for $26m.These days, however, even ordinary Istanbul properties are beyond the reach of most Turks. In the two years to May, the price of a square metre of real estate in the city has shot up by over 480%, according to Endeksa, a consultancy. Even after adjusting for inflation, which peaked at 86% year-on-year last autumn before slowing to a mere 40% in May, housing prices in Turkey as a whole increased by 51% last year, more than in any other major economy, according to a study by the Bank for International Settlements. Israel came a distant second, at 11%. Rents have spiked similarly. According to a senior municipal official, average rents in Istanbul, which is home to more than 16m people, have now surpassed average incomes.