Rania Oteify

As published in Scotsman Guide's Commercial Edition, April 2012.

This past January, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Turkey’s real gross-domestic product to grow by a mere 2 percent this year after a growth rate of 7 percent in 2011. IMF cited concerns over the country’s growing current-account deficit and lower capital inflows. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan projected 4 percent GDP growth this year. The country’s unemployment rate was 9.1 percent this past October, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Despite the anticipated slowdown, Turkey remains a positive territory and the office sector will continue to perform, Cushman & Wakefield said in a report. Istanbul’s existing Grade-A office stock was about 2.88 million square meters in fourth-quarter ’11 — a 13 percent increase year over year, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle. The vacancy rate in this sector was 9.1 percent at the end of 2011, and prime rents were expected to remain stable at 30 euros per square meter until the middle of this year, the report said.

— Rania Oteify