They are among Istanbul’s most iconic sights — magnificent waterside mansions strung out along the Bosphorus as the waters of the strait dividing Europe and Asia lap almost at their front doors.
Once the preserve of the Ottoman elite and affluent foreigners working in what was Constantinople, the mansions, known as yalis, were made famous in novels and through modern Turkey’s TV soap operas.
However, dozens are up for sale as Turkey enters a more troubled economic period and owners seek to cash in their luxury assets.
Photo: AFP
Prospective owners could expect to pay up to US$100 million for one of the premium properties — and have the chance of obtaining a Turkish passport as well.
With such a hefty asking price — as well as the opportunity of becoming a Turkish national — buyers are likely to be foreigners, heralding a drastic shake-up in the mansions’ ownership.
Real-estate brokers in Istanbul said that out of about 600 waterside yalis along the Bosphorus, 60 were up for sale.
The Turkish lira this summer plunged in value as markets reacted to a bitter spat with the US and many buyers think now is the perfect time to snap up property assets while the currency is cheap.
Sales have to be in Turkish lira — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has banned the sale, rent or leasing of property being conducted in, or indexed to, foreign currencies.
Brokers say that in a major turnaround, prospective buyers are almost never Turkish and are likely to be from the Middle East, especially Ankara’s closest Gulf ally, Qatar.
“With the lira losing value, Istanbul has become a paradise for people from the Gulf with higher purchasing power in their hands,” ANKA Invest sales director Hamed Elhamian said. “Investors from the Gulf believe that the lira will rise in value in the near future and their investments will appreciate in a very short time.”
Luxury real-estate consultant Ugur Ayhan also said foreign buyers had been showing greater interest in Turkey.
“Our potential clients are largely from Middle Eastern countries. We see people from Azerbaijan and Iran, but we have a customer portfolio dominated by Qatar,” he said.
Another attraction of buying a property is the possibility of gaining a Turkish passport, which offers eased or visa-free travel to key destinations.
Under a decree issued last month, Turkey made it easier for foreigners to become citizens by reducing the financial and investment criteria for citizenship.
Foreigners now need to have US$500,000 deposited in Turkish banks — down from the previously required US$3 million — while fixed capital investment was cut from US$2 million to US$500,000.
Crucially, people who own property worth at least US$250,000 are also entitled to become Turkish citizens, compared with the previous value necessary of US$1 million.
However, while the latest measures would ramp up demand for newly built apartments in Istanbul, a yali is an ultra-luxury asset beyond the range of most buyers, Ayhan said.
“It is not possible to buy a luxury apartment, let alone a yali with US$250,000,” he said.
Among the hundreds of mansions along the two sides of the Bosphorus, 360 of them are of historic value, real-estate broker Pinar Ayikcan Tuna said.
For the historic mansions, potential buyers need to receive permission from the development directorate of the Bosphorus and the council of monuments for any renovations or to fortify a building’s exterior facade.
“Turkish laws require that historic buildings are renovated or restored according to the original,” Ayhan said.
Some of the mansions are still owned by members of the Turkish elite, including the two largest family conglomerates: Koc and Sabanci.
However, “the domestic interest in the real estate is very low,” Elhamian said.
“Many local Turkish citizens and developers are looking to sell their real estate to foreigners who are looking to buy luxury properties worth more than the US$250,000 needed for citizenship,” Elhamian added.
Turkish soap operas, often with dozens of episodes lasting two hours each, hold the Arab world in thrall and have also tempted potential buyers from the Middle East.
Many of the soaps have evocative settings in waterside mansions on the Bosphorus. Tour companies in Istanbul even offer Arab tourists bus trips to the locations.
Interest surged following the hit 2008-2010 series Ask-i Memnu (Forbidden Love), which ran to almost 80 episodes and was wildly popular in the Arab world.
Its dramatic scenes of love and betrayal within a rich Istanbul family — based on a novel that is more than a century old, but updated to the present day — were filmed in a historic yali in the city’s Sariyer District.
“Those soap operas are actually our big advertisement overseas,” Tuna said. “People from Middle Eastern countries come and buy these kind of properties here because having a Bosphorus mansion in Istanbul is like a signature of power and it is a very unique beauty.”
Reha Grandjean, the family owner of a mansion on the Bosphorus, said to own such a place was special.
“It is a particular property, because as soon as one of them is put on sale, everyone wants their yali, everyone wants their little paradise,” Grandjean said.
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