Turkey will continue to offer ‘fantastic’ opportunities over the next 20 years, according to Glenn Aaronson, chairman of the Forum Turkey Fund of Multi Development and managing director of Aevitas Property Partners, a Dutch-based property group with $250 mln (EUR 200 mln) in seed capital from US pension fund Washington State Investment Board.

Turkey will continue to offer ‘fantastic’ opportunities over the next 20 years, according to Glenn Aaronson, chairman of the Forum Turkey Fund of Multi Development and managing director of Aevitas Property Partners, a Dutch-based property group with $250 mln (EUR 200 mln) in seed capital from US pension fund Washington State Investment Board.

‘I’ve really become a believer in Turkey as an investment place. Right now, there’s much more than you think there is - the potential is fantastic for the next 20 years,’ Aaronson said during a panel at Expo Real. Despite an occasional foray into offices, Aaronson said the Turkey fund will continue to focus exclusively on shopping centres. Commenting on international investment in Turkey, Aaronson said: ‘The acquisition by US group Blackstone of Redevco’s Turkish business is an indication that there is increasing interest in this market.’

The growth of the Turkish market is also visible in the number of Turkish retailers storming Europe with some of the best innovative spaces out there, according to Carsten Probst, managing partner at Istanbul-based developer Prime Development. ‘Twenty years ago, if you’d asked the average Turkish retailer what mattered about retail space, they probably wouldn’t have known. Shopping design wasn’t as important back then. But now, Turkish retailers, who initially learned from their Western European counterparts, have actually overtaken them,' Probst said.

In an additional twist, Turkish retailers are now taking the plunge and expanding outside their home market, said Probst, citing Mavi Jeans as an example of a well-known Turkish retailer on a European expansion drive.

The November issue of PropertyEU contains a full report on the European retail sector.

PropertyEU is also holding an investment briefing on the Turkish market this week. The Turkish Investment Briefing is being hosted at the offices of Aberdeen Asset Management at Bow Bells House from 8am to about 11am on Thursday 8 November. Click on the link below for more details.