The good ol’ days saw bright and cheery interviews with local governors published in newspapers. The news usually had the same wording -- you could simply change the name of the city and apply it to all resorts in Turkey.  
                                
“Thousands of overseas investors are buying from Didim, a resort town on Turkey’s Aegean coast. We are planning to form a structure in which all foreign residents will be represented at Didim City Hall. The number of Britons who bought property in Didim soared after a law was passed that made it easier for foreigners to acquire real estate in Turkey. The mayor said nearly 10,000 houses were sold to foreigners, especially British nationals. A municipal committee will be established for these people to be represented in City Hall.” Fantastic news, isn’t it?
I am not sure if this took place, but I am sure that thousands of foreign investors were scammed in Turkey by local builders and real estate agents with help from some officers who are now under arrest or standing before a court.

There were several scams, but I will not go into them one by one. My point in writing this article is to ask the authorities to pay attention to this problem and to make this matter more prominent as well as to warn people about this. I hope people will read this article and come together to make a concerted move to find a solution to their substantial loss.

To demonstrate the problems in the system of foreign nationals purchasing property here, I will give a brief outline and how the system works.

Briefly, real estate agents and builders relied on each other. In other words, they were in a sense partners. On most projects, they worked with lawyers, sworn translators and other professionals. These professionals were deemed independent, but their business was also based on the condition that the transaction would take place. The agent, the builder and the others were only able to make money if the overseas investor buys the property. Therefore, they did everything to make it possible. In some cases, this orchestra played illegally.

When this strong wave of overseas investors buying property started, my office was approached by local (usually with foreign shareholders) building companies and by some international (usually British) real estate agents regarding legal services in Turkey. We were able to get only a couple of transactions, the reason being that we challenged mistakes made in the progress of projects. Basically, we insisted on doing things the legal way and said: “You cannot sell this project under these circumstances. If you do, the buyers will lose their investments.” They did not like to hear the truth. We showed them the way to do it correctly, but they did not like it because doing so meant the developer would make a lower profit.

It is now time to come together and pursue the people who were involved in fraud.

First appeared on Today's Zaman

12:07.2010