As a part of the 4th stimulus package announced by the Turkish government, the private consumption taxes were decreased for a variety of goods or services including the value-added taxes for properties that are larger than 150 square meters.
As a part of this program that had to be announced due to the effects of the global crisis will be in effect for a period of 3 months until June 15th of 2009. The previous 18% tax that was implemented for properties larger than 150 sqaure meters is now decreased to 8%.
Although this reduction did not directly help recover the real estate market and return to its glory days back in 2007, it definitely helped increased the number of transactions. It motivated some buyers who were already planning to buy these types of properties to go ahed and complete the transactions. If you are planning to buy a property anywhere in Turkey that is larger than 150 square meters, it might be good time to complete the sales within the 3 month period before June 15th and take advantage of this reduction.