Turkey has identified another 1,070 people who, according to the investigation, obtained Turkish citizenship through fake real estate transactions. This marks the second major wave of investigations into schemes involving the granting of citizenship through residential property investments.
Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced the new operation on September 21. The investigation is being conducted by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office in collaboration with police units responsible for combating illegal migration.
Investigators examined real estate transactions conducted through the companies Gül İnşaat, Beyaz İnşaat, and LİV İnşaat. The audit covered sales to 734 foreign nationals, with 274 transactions deemed fictitious or suspicious. The total value of the transactions exceeded 3.5 billion Turkish lira, or approximately $72 million.
According to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, among the 1,070 people who obtained citizenship under these agreements, 263 were direct investors, while another 807 were their family members. Of these, 1,015 received citizenship at the same time as the initial decision, and another 55 children received it later. In addition, 11 individuals were identified whose citizenship application processes were still ongoing.
As part of the operation, judicial measures were applied to 2,011 real estate properties, one hotel, 86 vehicles, two yachts, and 42 bank accounts. State administrators were appointed to 30 companies. Legal proceedings have been initiated against 88 suspects, and dozens of people have been detained.
This is already the second wave of the investigation. The first major operation took place on August 4, 2026. At that time, the investigation established that another 687 people had obtained Turkish citizenship through artificially inflated appraisal reports and fictitious real estate sales. The prosecutor’s office has initiated proceedings to revoke their citizenship. In that case, authorities estimated the amount of investments that did not actually reach Turkey at approximately 2.5 billion lira.
Thus, the two most recent investigations in Istanbul alone involve at least 1,757 cases of citizenship acquisition linked to suspicious real estate transactions, when combining the 687 individuals from the first wave and the 1,070 from the second. However, these two figures pertain to specific criminal investigations and do not cover all reviews of investment-based citizenship in the country.
At the same time, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior has, for the first time, released broader statistics on the review of citizenship obtained through investment programs. According to the ministry, as of September 21, citizenship decisions had been revoked for 5,391 individuals, including investors and their family members. Additionally, citizenship was revoked after it had been granted for 743 individuals, specifically for reasons related to public order and national security. In total, this amounts to 6,134 individuals.
As of February 11, 2026, citizenship grants were separately revoked for 1,393 individuals associated with 458 investors whose documents certifying that their investments met the established requirements were annulled. Citizenship was also revoked from seven other individuals on grounds of national security and public order.
Turkish authorities have not published a breakdown of the 1,070 individuals implicated in the current investigation by their country of origin. No similar official breakdown was published regarding the 687 individuals identified in August either. Therefore, reports claiming a predominance of Russians, Iranians, citizens of Middle Eastern countries, or other nationalities in these specific cases are not currently supported by official documents.
The scheme being investigated by law enforcement agencies was based on fictitious or inflated real estate values and the simulation of required financial transactions. In some cases, real estate with a significantly lower actual value was valued much higher in the documents in order to formally meet the requirements of the citizenship-by-investment program.
Turkey allows foreign investors to apply for citizenship, specifically through the purchase of real estate valued at no less than $400,000. The property must meet established requirements, and the investment and flow of funds are subject to verification by government agencies.
Germany remains a country with one of the lowest homeownership rates in Europe, according to the Pestel-Institut. In 2025, only 43.5% of the country’s private households lived in their own apartment or house. This is the lowest figure in approximately two decades.
As reported by rebuild.news, owning a home in Germany is now more of an exception than the standard model of living: the majority of households continue to rent real estate.
Germany’s official statistics confirm this characteristic of the market. According to the Federal Statistical Office Destatis and Eurostat, in 2025, 52.8% of Germany’s population lived in rented housing. This is the highest share of tenants among all European Union countries. For comparison, in France it stood at 38.6%, in Spain at 26.4%, in Poland at 12.8%, and in Slovakia at only 6.2%.
The figures from the Pestel-Institut and Destatis differ somewhat due to methodology. Pestel estimates the share of households living in owner-occupied housing, while Eurostat data cited by Destatis are calculated at the population level. The German statistical office itself also publishes a homeownership rate of 41.9% for another sample of households.
The Pestel-Institut study shows that the problem is particularly noticeable among young Germans. Almost three quarters of residents aged 25-45 live in rented housing. Researchers cite rising construction costs, mortgage interest rates and insufficient affordability of home purchases for middle-income families as the main reasons.
Since 2000, the cost of constructing apartment buildings in Germany, according to the study, has risen by approximately 160%, while consumer prices have increased significantly more slowly. Even families with two average incomes in many regions face difficulties purchasing their own homes.
At the same time, the situation is complicated by an insufficient supply of new apartments. In 2025, around 206.6 thousand housing units were completed in Germany – 18% fewer than a year earlier, and the lowest figure since 2012.
The high share of tenants has long been a characteristic of the German real estate market model. A developed long-term rental market, strong tenant protection and a historically relatively low proportion of homeowners distinguish Germany from most Central and Eastern European countries, where the overwhelming majority of the population owns its housing.
At the same time, rents under new contracts are also rising rapidly. According to the European Commission, new rental rates in Germany increased by approximately 50.8% in 2013-2024, and by 76.3% in the seven largest cities.
GERMANY, HOMEOGERMANY, HOMEOWNERSHIPWNERSHIP, HOUSING, REAL ESTATE, RENTAL
PrivatBank has listed the “Dnipro-Arena” stadium and a training facility in Dnipro for an open auction on the “Prozorro.Sales” platform with a starting price of 140.7 million UAH, excluding VAT, the financial institution’s press service reported.
The auction will take place on October 6 in a three-round English auction format. The security deposit is 7.04 million UAH.
The lot includes a stadium with a total area of 15,950 square meters, a training complex covering 13,060 square meters, and a separate indoor soccer field measuring 7,470 square meters.
“Dnipro Arena” has a capacity of approximately 31,000 spectators, a VIP box with 296 seats, a restaurant with 550 seats, a 105×68-meter soccer field with underfloor heating and automatic irrigation, and parking lots for buses and cars.
The training complex includes four natural-turf fields, three outdoor fields with artificial turf, an indoor field with stands seating 506 people, a cottage village, a dormitory, a medical and rehabilitation center, a swimming pool, a gym, and other infrastructure.
The land plots on which the facilities are located are municipally owned; PrivatBank uses some of them under lease agreements, and the right to use one plot is currently being formalized.
The transfer of the property to the buyer is contingent upon receiving approval from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) for the concentration or a conclusion that such approval is not required, and upon full payment for the property.
Persons subject to sanctions, associated with jurisdictions posing an unacceptably high risk, or involved in corruption offenses, terrorist financing, or money laundering are not permitted to participate in the auction.
Restrictions also apply to companies with opaque ownership structures in offshore jurisdictions, as well as individuals affiliated with oligarchs, former executives, or owners of PrivatBank.
As previously reported, PrivatBank last attempted to sell this complex in the fall of 2025, but the auction scheduled for October 30 did not take place due to a lack of bids. The starting price was 150 million UAH.
After that, the bank tried to lease out “Dnipro-Arena” and the training facility, but the January 2026 auction also did not take place due to a lack of participants. The starting rent was 2.7 million UAH per month, including VAT.
PrivatBank is Ukraine’s largest bank. According to the National Bank, the financial institution’s total assets as of August 1, 2026, amounted to 979.31 billion UAH (22.7% of the total).
According to the Relocation project, members of the Latvian “Progressive” Party have submitted a bill to the Saeima to abolish the option of obtaining a temporary residence permit through investments of at least 150,000 euros in a state-run alternative investment fund.
Bill No. 1521/Lp14 was introduced on September 3, and on September 10, the Saeima voted 65 to 17 to refer it to parliamentary committees for review.
The new Immigration Act, which takes effect on September 15, 2026, allows a foreign national to obtain a temporary residence permit for up to five years, provided they invest at least 150,000 euros for a period of at least five years through a state-established alternative investment fund manager. Additionally, the investor must transfer 10,000 euros to the state budget.
The “Progressives”’ proposal calls for removing this provision from the law. The authors of the initiative explain their position by citing risks related to national security, anti-money laundering, compliance with sanctions regimes, and the country’s international reputation. This is the position of the bill’s sponsors, not a decision already adopted by the Saeima.
At the same time, the bill does not abolish another investment mechanism for obtaining a residence permit—through an investment in the capital of a Latvian company. Under current law, a foreign investor may apply for a temporary residence permit, specifically, by making an investment of 50,000 euros in a company with up to 50 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of up to 10 million euros, or an investment of 100,000 euros in a larger company. An initial fee of 10,000 euros payable to the state budget is also required upon initial application.
The new Immigration Law was adopted by the Saeima on August 20 and entered into force on September 15, 2026. It replaced the previous regulations governing investment-based residence permits and, in particular, eliminated the previously used grounds related to real estate purchases and subordinated bank deposits.
The fund mechanism was included in the new law following lengthy discussions in the Saeima. In June, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs returned the law to parliament for reconsideration and specifically drew attention to the provision allowing the issuance of a residence permit in exchange for an investment of 150,000 euros in an alternative investment fund and a contribution of 10,000 euros to the budget.
For now, this is only a legislative proposal. To eliminate the investment-based residence permit, the amendments must undergo further review and be adopted by the Saeima.
INVESTMENTS, LATVIA, MIGRATION, REAL ESTATE, RESIDENCE PERMIT
On September 30, Kyiv will host the professional gathering “METRONOM. Kyiv,” dedicated to collaboration between developers and architects and the creation of added value in real estate projects. The event is organized by the DMNTR media group.
The meeting will take place from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM at 2 Knyaziv Ostrozkykh Street, near the “Arsenalska” metro station.
“METRONOM. Kyiv” is designed for a professional audience of up to 200 participants, including investors, developers, architects, manufacturers of building materials, and representatives of the real estate market.
The business program will be centered around three practical case studies. Teams of developers and architects will present real-world projects entering the market and demonstrate how collaboration between the client and the architect is structured, which decisions influence a property’s value, and how the architectural concept is integrated into the development model.
Among the event’s headliners are representatives from A Development, AVG Group, and A. Pashenko Architects: Oleksiy Baranov, Yulia Polyukhovich, Andriy Pashenko, and Andriy Voitko.
The second case study will be presented by SAGA Development and BGV Development—Andriy Vavrysh, Anna Viken, Yevhen Binyavskyi, and Serhiy Zalevskyi.
The third case study will feature representatives from “Creator-Bud” and AIMM—Igor Guda, Maxim Myatko, Dmytro Struk, Yulia Dementyeva, and Lyudmila Chumak.
Registration for participants will begin at 4:00 p.m. The business session, featuring presentations of the three case studies, will run from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Following that, from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., there will be an informal program featuring jazz, a buffet, and networking.
The organizers are offering three participation options. A standard ticket costs 2,500 UAH and includes participation in the business session, a cocktail reception, and networking.
A premium ticket, priced at 5,000 UAH, includes priority registration, seats in the premium section, an extended evening program featuring a buffet, a cigar ceremony, and a whiskey tasting, as well as a separate networking session.
Online participation costs 1,500 UAH and includes access to the live stream of the event’s business program from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
Seating is limited. Participation in the event and access to the online stream are available only after prior registration and payment.
Registration: DMNTR Media Group, tel. 077 777 25 47, 044 461 91 28.
Registration and ticket purchase form.
Open4business – information partner
ARCHITECTURE, DEVELOPMENT, DMNTR, KYIV, REAL ESTATE, МЕТРОНОМ
Rental rates for warehouse space in Ukraine have increased by 12–13% over the past few months, UTG Director Yevgeniya Loktionova told the “Interfax-Ukraine” news agency.
“Due to the destruction and rapid reduction in vacant space, the market has turned into a ‘landlord’s market.’ In recent months alone, as the shortage has worsened, rates for high-quality space have risen by an average of 12–13%,” she noted.
According to UTG, in the Kyiv region, the prime effective rental rate for Class A space remains in the range of $5–$5.5 per square meter per month (excluding VAT and OPEX), while in some deals for the most sought-after or well-protected properties, it reaches $6 per square meter. In western regions (particularly Lviv Oblast), rates range from $6 to $7 per square meter.
As previously reported, according to a WINHUB study, as of early September, Ukraine’s warehouse infrastructure had shrunk by 50%—from 4.2 million square meters at the start of 2022, with the enemy having destroyed 2.1 million square meters (Classes A/B). New construction between 2022 and 2026 (800,000 square meters) only partially offset these losses. The situation is even more acute in the capital region, where more warehouses were lost in the first eight months of 2026 than during the entire period from 2022 to 2025. In total, 68% of the inventory (1.5 million square meters) was lost.
UTG was founded in 2001. The company has developed over 1,300 real estate concepts. Over the years, 4.7 million square meters of commercial space in Ukraine have been leased with the company’s involvement.
