The reporter of the main station looks at the world! Hello everyone, I am Liang Hui, a correspondent of the headquarters in Turkey. The topic I want to talk to you about today is that in Turkey, buying a car will not only not depreciate, but will appreciate, so buying a car has become a popular investment method for locals.
As we all know, in recent years, the Turkish currency has depreciated and inflation has been serious, and in 2022 alone, the Turkish lira has depreciated by nearly 30% against the US dollar. The lira, which is stored in a bank account, evaporates as quickly as water vapor, and if you don't pay attention, you lose a large sum out of thin air. In this case, the purchase of physical goods with reserves and appreciation potential has become an important investment means for many people to maintain and increase their value. Of course, buying a house is the best way to preserve value, but a house can easily cost millions of lira, not everyone can afford it, and it is not very convenient to cash out. For the public, since they can't afford to buy a house, they should buy a car.
Affected by the continuous shortage of chip supply, the supply of new cars in Turkey is seriously insufficient
Many people will wonder, how can you maintain the value of buying a car? It is mainly determined by supply and demand.
According to a report published by the Financial Times, the global semiconductor crisis will continue in 2023, and the chip supply shortage continues to affect the automotive industry. In Turkey, the new car market is severely undersupplied, and it takes five or six months to buy a new car, and even a year for some special models. In addition, the purchase of imported cars also has to pay very high taxes, only special consumption tax, according to the engine displacement and pre-tax price, the lowest must also pay 80%, the highest can reach 220%. That is, in Turkey, you have to spend nearly two or even three cars to buy one. The data shows that between January and December 2022, the price of the cheapest imported cars also rose by around 50%, that is, at the beginning of last year, if you bought a car it cost 400,000 lire, by the end of the year it was 600,000 lire.
Used car trading market in Turkey
Bozkurt, president of the Turkish Automobile Dealers Association, said that many people use buying a car as a good investment means for two main reasons: first, buying a car is much more practical than buying a house, and the price of a new car may be only about one-tenth of the price of a house; Secondly, cars sell better and monetize easier. In the past, it used to take an average of four or five years to buy a car, but now many people sell it in less than three years.
However, the supply of new cars is insufficient, and there is a high special consumption tax, and many people who cannot buy or cannot afford to buy new cars turn to second-hand cars, because second-hand cars can also maintain or even appreciate in value. In the first 11 months of 2022, new car sales in Turkey fell by 2.4% to more than 500,000 units, while used car sales increased by 5% to more than 5.6 million, and used car purchases have exceeded new car purchases by 11 times, according to a data. In 2021, used car sales were 8.6 times higher than new cars.
On the used car sales website, a 190,000-kilometer 2015 Passat was priced at 1 million lira (about 360,000 yuan)
The boom in second-hand car sales naturally pushes up the price of used cars. The head of an international used car platform office in Turkey said that the price of used cars in Turkey has increased by at least 40% in 2022. According to a data from the Istanbul Automobile Sales Association, used car prices increased by 2 to 2.5 times in the second half of 2022 compared to the beginning of 2020. However, although the price of motor vehicles is rising rapidly, people's spending power continues to decline under high inflation, so the actual car sales are not as high as the figures suggest.
In a Turkish used car market, buyers check the condition of the vehicle
Just in late March this year, the Turkish lira fell below the lowest point against the dollar again, having already broken through the 19 lira mark. In this economic situation, as wealth continues to be diluted, in order to preserve the value of assets, Turks began to buy houses, cars, gold, or exchange lira for dollars and euros, in short, do everything to avoid smashing the lira in their hands.
The above is the observation report brought by Liang Hui, a reporter of the headquarters in Turkey.
The author of this issue of "The Resident Station Reporter Sees the World" is Liang Hui, a reporter of the General Station in Turkey
(From the Voice of China column "Main Station Reporter Sees the World")
Executive producer丨Li Tianjiao
Reporter丨Liang Hui
Editor丨Du Yuting
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