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It’s no secret that Russians are currently the most active global market when it comes to real estate purchases. It’s now been revealed that property in Turkey is the third most popular global location for the highly active Russian market, reports Turkish property experts House Sales Turkey (http://www.housesalesturkey.com/).

One of the UK’s leading property experts, Liam Bailey of property consultancy Knight Frank has revealed the results of a survey conducted at Moscow’s leading property show. The survey of 499 Russian property buyers was carried out by the Russian overseas property magazine International Residence at the Moscow show in March. The findings revealed that Turkey was the third most popular country among Russians looking at overseas property, with Bulgaria coming first and Spain coming second.

The Russians surveyed who considered buying property in Turkey said that they planned to make their purchase in the next 12 months with the majority looking to buy apartments. 53% of those surveyed said that they were buying for lifestyle reasons, with villas in Turkey to be used as holiday homes a popular choice, while just 12% said they were buying purely for investment purposes. Bailey explained that "The survey also found that 40% of buyers were looking to spend between 100,000 Euros and 250,000 Euros, a higher percentage than has been seen at previous shows".

Turkey is new to the list of countries Russian buyers favour. Citing reasons for this newfound popularity, Bailey points to recent figures from the Turkish Association of Real Estate Investment Companies which recorded a 40% increase in purchases of property in Turkey by foreign buyers in 2010. The report also showed $2.5 billion worth of such sales in 2010, which according to Bailey is "almost as much as the $3 billion recorded in the 2 years 2006-2008 put together".

Bailey believes that the reason for this popularity "comes down to a very powerful package: A strong and stable economy with a strong and stable banking system combining to present an environment of high liquidity  and low interest rates, not to mention the booming tourism industry as more and more people fall for Turkey's sun, sea, sand and friendly people year on year. This package is making the country attractive to holiday home  buyers, holiday home (fly to let) investors, and even residential (buy to let) investors. There are also reports of private buyers investing in student accommodation in Istanbul".

To find out further information on the Turkish property market, go to http://www.housesalesturkey.com/.