Some areas of Istanbul have become as attractive as the high-end “marquee addresses” of London and Paris, says Turkey’s Sotheby’s International Realty General Manager Arman Özver.
Özver believes that Istanbul’s location and culture gives it the “most historic value” of any European city, with a well-developed financial system and good infrastructure meaning that it is being seen as a ‘safe haven’ by the world’s super rich- especially areas like the upmarket Nişantaşı district.
“Nişantaşı is the same as Knightsbridge in central London,” he says, “and if rental or sale prices in İstanbul collapse by 50%, prices for buildings like these will maintain their value, because they are unique,” he commented.
Many properties in Istanbul now reach $15,000, $20,000, $25,000 per sqm, even in downtown locations, with wealthy investors realising that they can access Moscow, Azerbaijan, the Gulf cities of Doha and Dubai and Europe’s financial capital, London, all with flights under four hours.
And Özver has high hopes for the future of property in Istanbul, with buyers still clamouring to invest: “In the last six months we have hosted representatives of different Arab royal families who are looking for property in Istanbul. They have very specific requests and are sophisticated investors, owning properties across the world,” he adds.
via A Place in the Sun | News and features – Istanbul starting to rival high-end Paris and London says Sotheby’s.
Before the doors of the first exhibition of contemporary Turkish art in London had even opened, nearly half of the 70 or so workd had been sold.
By Colin Gleadell 6:54PM BST 18 Apr 2011
Behind you: the original wood carving for 'Treacherous Wolf? by Yasam Sazmazer Photo: Bernd Borchardt
The first exhibition of contemporary Turkish art in London got off to a flying start last weekend. Before the doors had even opened, nearly half of the 70 or so works by 19 different artists, most of whom had never exhibited in London before, had been sold. Confessions of Dangerous Minds is the alluring title to the exhibition which is being held in the Saatchi Gallery, selected by two young independent curators, Jason Lee and Carlo Berardi. Lee, a Singaporean who studied graphic design in London before becoming a collector and curator of Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern and now Turkish contemporary art, has made artists from the “emerging” markets something of a speciality. Berardi, the son of an Italian collector, found his way to Turkish art through an interest in the Middle Eastern market.
The two decided on an exhibition in London after visiting the Istanbul Contemporary fair in 2008. By now, the blossoming of the market for modern and contemporary Turkish art inside Turkey had persuaded Sotheby’s to hold the first auction of contemporary Turkish art in London to bring it to a wider, international audience.
That sale, in March 2009, was held in the teeth of the recession but still managed to achieve its lower estimate at £1.3 million. Modern art from the Fifties and Sixties formed the backbone of the sale, but it also helped launch younger, less expensive artists, led by Taner Ceylan, whose hyper-realist painting of a boxer’s bloodied head sold for £70,000 to Turkish collector Omer Koc. Two thirds of the buyers were new to Sotheby’s and hailed from as far afield as Asia, the Middle East and North America.
Sotheby’s second sale, a year later, saw an improved £2.4 million return, and led the bankers HSBC to report that “Turkey stands to be one of the most exciting contemporary art markets of the next decade.”
Lee and Berardi decided to time their exhibition to follow Sotheby’s third auction which, this year, was accompanied by Bonhams’ first contemporary Turkish art sale. It was a brave effort by Bonhams, which brought £1 million. But approximately two thirds of the lots, which were too familiar to collectors, went unsold.
Sotheby’s, which had lost its leading expert in the field, also struggled at points, but sold two thirds of the lots and roughly equalled the previous year’s total with a £2.3 million sale. As with all emerging markets, records tumbled for the younger generation, many of whom were making their first appearance at auction. And it was on this aspect of the market that Lee and Berardi had set their sights.
Several artists in their exhibition were also included in the Sotheby’s sale, and collectors who sensed auction prices would go higher than in the gallery made their purchases before the auction – wisely, it would appear. A satin and embroidery work of the Pope engulfed by fire, The Sacred Fire of Faith, by 43 year-old Ramazan Bayracoglu was one of the first to go, says Lee, selling for £40,000 to a French collector. A similarly sized embroidery by Bayracoglu, estimated at £12,000, then sold at Sotheby’s for £61,250. A digitally manipulated photographic print, Guns of War, by 32-year-old Ansen Atilla, sold for £25,000. At Sotheby’s, a similar work by Ansen, estimated at £22,000, sold for a record £39,650. Treacherous Wolf, a bronze sculpture by Yasam Sazmazer, doubled its estimate at Sotheby’s to sell for almost £14,000. The original wood carving, theoretically worth much more after that, sold at the Saatchi Gallery before the auction for £20,000.
Other works in the exhibition have been selling for as little as £3,000, while a painting by Taner Ceylan, whose work soared to a £233,000 record at Sotheby’s, is also spoken for at an undisclosed price. None of the buyers, says Lee, have been Turkish.
The show, which is more of a reflection on what Lee and Berardi have tipped for the future than an academic survey, is the last to be sponsored by the auctioneers Phillips de Pury & Co, which has had a sponsorship arrangement with the Saatchi Gallery since it opened in Chelsea two and a half years ago, and runs until April 30.
via These days we’re all talking Turkey – Telegraph.
Global luxury real estate chain Sotheby’s announced the opening of its first office in Istanbul at a press meeting Tuesday.
Turkey has great potential for demand in luxurious real estate, compared to the European market, Chief Executive of Sotheby’s International Realty Mike Good told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review at the meeting.
Operating in 43 countries across the world through franchising and master offices, Sotheby’s opened its first branch in Turkey in the cosmopolitan district of Nişantaşı.
“Turkey is a very strategic location for us and we are confident that it will be a quality market,” Good said. “I expect a great boom in the Turkish market due to the country’s great population and keen interest in luxurious lifestyles.”
The number of Sotheby’s branches in Turkey is expected to rise to 10 over the next three years, said Emin Hitay, board chairman of Hitay Yatırım Holding – a Sotheby’s Turkish franchisee. “We aim to reach a business volume of $1 billion by the end of 2011,” he said.
Turkish consumers spent nearly $14 billion Turkish Liras this year and this amount is expected to rise, according to the chairman.
Nearly 15 percent of property projects in Istanbul consist of luxurious residences, he said. “We will provide private and confidential services for our customers.”
In the Istanbul real estate market, price-per-square-meter has risen from $5,000 to $25,000 in the last few years, Hitay told the Daily News. Istanbul would be the main focus of the company’s growth and new offices are set to be opened in the southern province of Antalya, as well as the southwestern province of Marmaris, in next few years, he said.
The real estate company also plans to provide services to Turkish customers who would like to buy or rent a property abroad, as well as foreigners in search of luxurious properties in Turkey. “Average per capita income [in Turkey] rose nearly threefold in the last eight years and consequently the purchasing power of Turks also increased rapidly, thanks to the positive climate following the global economic crisis,” the chairman said.
Foreign demand in local properties
Foreigners’ demand in Turkish properties has boomed in recent years, especially in Istanbul, since the city provides “a modern but also a traditional lifestyle in a unique environment,” he said. “The total volume of real estate purchased by foreigners living in Turkey had reached $566 million by the first quarter and $916 million in the second quarter of this year.”
The group expected this figure to rise, the chairman told the Daily News. “The law of reciprocity could be waived by the Turkish government regarding the sale of properties to foreigners.”
The Turkish Parliament has recently been working on a draft law to ease real estate purchases for foreigners.
“Foreign demand in old Istanbul – known as the main historical district of the city – is rising daily,” said Çiğdem Hitay, chairperson of Sotheby’s International Realty Turkey.
“Historic waterside mansions by the Bosphorus attract foreigners,” she said, adding that the cost of such residences vary between $6 million and $150 million, depending on the characteristics and conditions of the building and the view.
Özver believes that Istanbul’s location and culture gives it the “most historic value” of any European city, with a well-developed financial system and good infrastructure meaning that it is being seen as a ‘safe haven’ by the world’s super rich- especially areas like the upmarket Nişantaşı district.
