Emerging Property Markets 2010 Part I: Egypt and Turkey

In 2006, 2007 and 2008 emerging markets were extremely popular with property investors from around the world. After so many people lost out on their investments you can hardly blame people for giving emerging markets a wide berth.

That said: you currently can't move around the overseas property arena without hearing mention of either Turkey, Egypt or both.

Turkey

Turkey was popular with overseas buyers in 2006 and 7 but primarily only lifestyle buyers. Investors tended to think that EU membership was needed in order for the market to flourish. However, the fact that Turkey suffered a financial crash in 2001 left it well placed to withstand this one, and Turkey has rebounded strongly from the downturn.

Turkey is now thought to be one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, and with a reasonable budget deficit of just 5%, Turkey's economy is standing out as solid enough for investment. On top of that Turkey has been forging trade agreements with countries around the world. Suddenly it seems that the EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs to EU.

Egypt

Egypt is a totally different kettle of fish altogether; in transition from third world country to free market economy, Egyptian GDP has continued to grow strongly throughout the downturn. Egypt is undoubtedly a high risk market, but you have places like Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and the wider Red Sea Riviera where prices are so low and potential growth so high that many people are seeing it as well worth a punt.

Hurghada

When you look a little deeper you see that Hurghada is actually a unique and pretty special opportunity with far more going for it than price:

Hurghada tourism is growing rapidly, with visitor numbers from Britain alone growing at an average of 20% per year for the last few years. Further, the property market has grown in sync with rising tourism, and the two are very much linked in that resorts built to service the increasing tourist demand are being sold to property investors.

Hurghada has its own international airport, a growing number of shops and restaurants, great beaches and a year round climate. Pretty much everything a successful investment destination needs. The low prices are simply the icing on the cake. Well... actually the icing on the cake is the fact that most of the Red Sea Riviera is protected as a nature reserve, so over-development will never become an issue, and demand outstripping supply will keep prices going up.

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