A 2-bed in Antalya Konyaaltı sells for $168,000 and rents for $840/month. Gross yield: 6.0%. A 2-bed in Lisbon Belém sells for €420,000 and rents for €1,600/month. Gross yield: 4.6%. Neighbouring countries, wildly different yield curves.
The structural reason is risk pricing. Capital flowing into European real estate is chasing safety, low correlation and regulatory clarity. Turkey has none of those attributes in the EU risk-pricing sense. What it has is yield — and enough political / currency risk to keep it priced for that yield.
The practical question: is the risk worth the yield? Three factors to weigh.
First, currency. You're earning TRY rent and holding TRY-settled collateral. If you can't hedge or don't convert, you'll lose 15-25%/year to lira depreciation. Your USD-denominated 6% yield becomes -2% real if you leave it in TRY. Strategy: convert rent monthly, reindex TRY leases with CPI clauses.
Second, exit liquidity. In a forced-sale scenario you'll discount 10-15% below market in Turkey. Transaction costs are 6-8% all-in. If you hold 7+ years the yield cushion dominates; if you plan to flip in 2-3 years you're probably worse off than in Lisbon.
Third, political. Property rights for foreigners have been stable since the 2012 Mutual Reciprocity reform. The 2022 citizenship threshold change was the only meaningful policy move in a decade. But military-zone restrictions (you can't own in certain border / coastal zones) and the occasional macro-prudential tightening (mortgage caps for foreigners, brief in 2023) are reminders that the regulatory surface can shift.
For investors who can convert, hedge, and hold: Turkey's yield premium vs Western Europe is real and pays for the risk. For investors who can't: it doesn't.