LONDON: The plunge in the value of the Turkish lira has fueled a foreign investor buying spree for Istanbul apartments, with the most interest coming from Gulf countries, according to market observers interviewed by Arab News.
Investors from the region are seeking to exploit the near 40 percent depreciation of the local currency against the dollar since January as a political spat with the US and market concern about the fragile Turkish economy has stoked a massive sell-off of the lira.
In an interview with Arab News, Cameron Deggin, founder of PropertyTurkey.com said: “In the last few weeks, unique visitor traffic to our site has more than doubled to over 5,000 a day. We can see from the data that most of the interest is from GCC countries, with Saudi Arabia — as the most populous GCC state — in the lead by a significant margin.”
Some of the Saudi interest, but not all, was from people who originally came from other Middle East states such as Jordan, Iraq and Tunisia, but who have had residency rights in KSA for many years, and in some cases are the children of families who arrived one two generations ago.
Over the past five years, Deggin said that Gulf investors had flocked to Istanbul, buying up apartments as second homes. This was more because they felt an affinity with Turkey as a Muslim country with a cultural vibe that they found appealing, rather than because they saw real estate as a canny investment, although the weakening lira has helped. That trend has accelerated this year as the currency crisis has intensified.
“You ask why GCC nationals are buying apartments that may fall further in value, and have already dropped about 35 percent? Well, my answer is that it’s because GCC investors are buying from the heart,” Deggin said. “At each training session, I tell my guys that GCC buyers might be saying they want an investment, but for 90 percent of them, the real motive is lifestyle. They just want a place in Istanbul. Investment is a secondary motive.
“Turkey is a stable country socially, culturally and demographically.”
Deggin predicted that when the lira stabilizes, the buying surge from outside the country will double as some investors with deep pockets were waiting on the sidelines as they were more risk averse.
Up to 2017, he said “if you had dollars in your pocket your investment was going up in value because the price increase was on average higher than the depreciation of lira.”
The big question now is what happens if the crisis worsens with a further cranking up of tensions between the US and Ankara.
Kate Everett-Allen, of global property consultancy Knight Frank, told Arab News: “Turkey has faced a number of political, economic and financial crises in recent years and yet, despite this, foreign interest has proved largely stable.”
Between January and March 2017, there were 4,316 sales to foreign buyers, in the same three-month period in 2018 this figure increased to 5,367 according to data from the Turkish Statistics Office, Turkstat.
For foreign investors, a 10 million-lira villa that would have cost roughly $1.9 million a few weeks ago, would now set them back only $1.57 million, a hypothetical saving of more than $300,000, according to Julian Walker, director of Spot Blue International Property, a London-based Turkish real estate portal, cited in a report by Mansion Global.
Walker said that tourism fuels the property market and this year had already been exceptional in spite of the state’s woes. Turkey logged a record 11.5 million foreign tourists in the first five months of 2018, a 30 percent jump over the same period last year, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Turkey saw a 22 percent spike in home sales to foreign buyers in 2017, according to a year-end report from the Turkish Statistical Institute.
However, not everyone is relaxed about the Turkish property market. The Guardian warned in a report on Aug. 23 that Turkey’s construction boom was built on cheap foreign loans and that with many construction materials sold in dollars, a crash could be round the corner with developers going bust.
Citing Kajin Bulut, who has worked in senior positions in forecasting and sales for a number of Turkish construction firms, told the Guardian: “The construction sector is like the head of a train — if it goes, the whole country goes.”
Turkish lira plunge sees Gulf property investors flock to Istanbul
Turkish lira plunge sees Gulf property investors flock to Istanbul
Mideast sets record in renewable energy capacity, Saudi Arabia reaches 2.6 GW: IRENA
RIYADH: Renewable energy capacity in the Middle East soared to a record high in 2023, with the addition of 5.1 gigawatts, marking a 16.6 percent increase from the previous year.
According to the latest data released by the International Renewable Energy Agency, this new addition brought the region’s total renewable energy capacity to 35.54 GW, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 2.68 GW.
The data showed that global green power capacity reached 3,870 GW in 2023, marking a 13.9 percent increase over the previous year. This represents the largest surge in sustainable energy capacity to date, with the addition of 473 GW.
Green sources constituted a record-breaking 86 percent of global power additions, primarily driven by substantial expansions in solar and wind energy.
Solar power alone contributed nearly three-quarters of renewable additions, totaling a record 346 GW, while an additional 116 GW of wind energy was incorporated, the report added.
Francesco La Camera, director general of IRENA, said: “Despite these unprecedented renewable additions in 2023, the world is still falling short of what is required to achieve the goal adopted at COP28 to triple installed renewable power capacity by 2030 to reach 11 TW.”
With one less year to meet the goal, he emphasized that the world now requires additions of approximately 1,050 GW each year for the remainder of this decade to align with the World Energy Transitions Outlook scenario and maintain a trajectory toward limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The growth of sustainable energy is unevenly distributed globally, with Asia leading the expansion with a 473 GW increase, primarily propelled by China’s 63 percent surge to 297.6 GW. This highlights a notable discrepancy with other regions, particularly developing countries. While Africa saw some growth, it was modest at 4.6 percent, reaching 62 GW.
By the end of 2023, Camera said, renewable energy sources comprised 43 percent of the global installed power capacity.
“Yet, as we draw closer to a world in which renewable energy accounts for half of total capacity, many energy planning questions still need to be addressed to establish renewables as the most significant source of electricity generation - including in the context of grid flexibility and adaptation to variable renewable power,” he added.
ACWA Power signs $800m water purchase agreement with Senegal
RIYADH: Saudi energy giant ACWA Power has signed an SR3 billion ($800 million) agreement with Senegal’s Ministry of Water to develop a desalination plant.
The company, partly owned by the Public Investment Fund, announced the inking of a water purchase agreement for the construction of the facility in Dakar, Senegal in a statement on the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul.
ACWA Power will be responsible for the infrastructure, design and financing as well as construction, operation and maintenance of the Grande Cote seawater desalination plant in the West African country.
The project will have a production capacity of 400,000 cubic meters per day, the statement said.
NEOM CEO lands in top 3 of Forbes’ Real Estate Leaders list
RIYADH: NEOM CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr has been ranked third in Forbes Middle East’s “Most Impactful Real Estate Leaders” list, underlining the Kingdom's prominence in the sector.
The giga-project chief was placed beneath Mohamed Al-Abbar from the UAE-based Emaar Properties, and Talal Al-Dhiyebi from Abu Dhabi-headquartered Aldar Properties.
The Kingdom saw the second most entries on the list, with 23 Saudis landing on the publication’s ranking.
This is a testament to the major investments the nation has made in its real estate sector, a statement from Forbes noted.
“Governments, corporates, and semi-government developers are investing in real estate projects throughout the region, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE. These projects are giving a huge boost to the regional construction sector, which also has a positive outlook over the next few years,” the statement said.
UAE, Japan to develop industrial steam and electricity cogeneration plant in Saudi Arabia
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., also known as TAQA, together with JERA Co., Inc, Japan’s largest power generation company, announced Thursday that they have entered into a Power and Steam Purchase Agreement with Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., or SATORP, a joint venture company owned by Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies.
According to the Emirates News Agency, they will develop a greenfield industrial steam and electricity cogeneration plant that will produce electricity and steam for the Amiral petrochemical complex to be developed in Jubail in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
The Amiral petrochemical complex is expected to house one of the largest mixed-load steam crackers in the Arab Gulf region.
The Amiral cogeneration plant will include state-of-the-art power and steam generation systems, gas and water receiving systems, and gas-insulated switchgear interconnections while meeting stringent efficiency standards imposed by the Saudi Energy Efficiency Centre.
The project also provides for the future installation of a carbon dioxide capture plant and is capable of hydrogen cofiring, WAM reported.
The Amiral cogeneration plant will be developed by a special purpose entity owned by TAQA, holding 51 percent, and JERA, holding 49 percent. It will operate on a build, own, and operate basis for 25 years, with the possibility of extension by five years upon mutual agreement.
TAQA and JERA will also undertake the operation and maintenance of the plant through an O&M special purpose entity.
Farid Al Awlaqi, CEO of TAQA Generation, said: “The signing of the offtake agreements for the cogeneration power and steam project at the Amiral petrochemical facility, a key downstream project being developed by two of the world’s leading energy companies, demonstrates the confidence in TAQA’s ability to deliver critical utilities, including power and steam effectively.
Together with our partner JERA, TAQA is looking forward to developing an efficient cogeneration plant that reduces carbon emissions and supports SATORP with its long-term decarbonization program. The agreement will bolster TAQA’s efforts in building on our growth and executing our 2030 goals.”
Steven Winn, chief global strategist of JERA, said: “We will be providing stable, highly efficient, clean and reliable power and steam to our customer SATORP. The Amiral Cogeneration plant will not only enhance the Amiral Complex’s operational efficiency, but also demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship and our growth ambitions for sustainable power generation solutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region.”
Saudi media giant SRMG’s revenue grows to $997m
RIYADH: Saudi Research and Media Group’s revenues hit SR3.74 billion ($997 million) in 2023, reflecting a 0.98 percent increase compared to 2022 figures.
According to a Tadawul statement, this increase in sales is primarily attributed to enhanced revenue generated by the publishing and visual and digital content segment, as well as other divisions.
However, the printing and packaging business witnessed a decline in revenues due to several planned projects not being secured.
The total shareholders’ equity for the parent company, after excluding non-controlling interest, as of Dec. 31, 2023, stands at SR3.08 billion, reflecting a 16.26 percent increase compared to the corresponding period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, SRMG’s net profits reached SR559 million by the end of last year, showing a decrease of 13.74 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
The decline was primarily attributed to the drop in revenue of the printing and packaging division, along with the goodwill impairment associated with the same segment, in addition to the operating costs of certain projects.
In January, SRMG, the largest integrated media group from the Middle East and North Africa region, announced the appointment of several new editors-in-chief, deputy editors-in-chief, and assistant editors-in-chief.
This announcement aligned well with SRMG’s digital transformation, growth, and expansion strategy, showcasing the group’s dedication to cultivating the next generation of journalists and media professionals to meet the demands of audiences worldwide.
Moreover, this decision reflected the significant shift in regional media consumption habits, particularly with the increasing popularity of digital, social, and audio-visual media platforms.