Identifying key factors affecting foreigners' choice on real estate acquisition: The case of İzmir City, Turkey

Abstract

With many legal arrangements made in recent years have facilitated real estate acquisition (REA) by foreigners in Turkey. This situation has affected foreigners' preferences of real estate (such as land, housing) acquisition. With this effect, foreigners have started to acquire housing in İzmir and many other provinces in Turkey. In this study, It is aimed to determine the weight of the criteria that foreigners consider when purchasing housing in İzmir. In this context, 7 main and 28 sub-factors affecting housing acquisition (HA) were determined by interviewing 70 foreigners who acquired housing in Izmir. Later, foreigners were asked to weight these criteria using scales for pairwise comparison. Then, the scale values obtained were subjected to the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the importance degress (percentages) of the criteria were determined. According to the determined importance degress, In Turkey, especially in İzmir, the criteria that foreigners pay attention to when purchasing housing are "security environment" with 35%, "facilities in housing acquisition" with 19%, "location of the housing" with 13%, "economic factors" with 13%, "geographical location of the country " with 9%, "socio-cultural structure" with 7% and "housing features" criteria with 4%. Accordingly, “the security environment in Turkey”, “facilities in housing acquisition” and other criteria have a positive influence on HA by foreigners in Turkey. Based on the importance of these criteria, the situation was addressed both for the interests of the country and for foreigners, and various suggestions were made. With the suggestions made, it is aimed to carry out the HA process of the foreigner in a more controlled and effective manner.