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What Happens When You Try to Sell CBI Real Estate · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: An investor got Dominican citizenship by buying a property for$200,000.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: When he tried to sell, the developer offered him$80,000, 60% of his investment gone.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just how the system works.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The old investing adage is true.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Plan the exit before the entry.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: In this video, we're going to show you what happens when you try to exit citizenship by investment real estate in the three major markets.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Caribbean, Turkey, and Egypt.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll walk through real transaction data, structural problems with these programs, and how to identify issues before you invest hundreds of thousands of non-refundable capital.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with the Caribbean.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Five countries offer citizenship through real estate.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: St.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Lucia.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Caribbean citizenship, eligible investment real estate, come in two forms, titled Properties, where you actually own real estate, and preferred shares in resort developments, where you own a piece of paper representing part of a hotel project.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Both face the same fundamental problem.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you try to sell, your buyer pool consists almost entirely of other people shopping for citizenship.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Regular real estate investors typically aren't interested.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tourists aren't buying.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Local buyers can't afford these prices.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're selling to future CBI applicants, and really that's it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what that means for pricing.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: If someone wants citizenship and can buy fresh developer inventory at the$200,000 program minimum, why would they pay you$250,000 for your used investment?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: They won't, frankly.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Unless your property offers something genuinely exceptional, you're competing against developers who have better marketing, establish sales channels, and brand new units.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The holding periods make this worse.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Antigua and Barbuda locks you in for five years.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: St.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Kitts and Nevis stretches ownership requirements to seven years.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: By the time you can legally sell, newer inventory has flooded the market.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your resale channels run through the same RCBI advisors and developers who sold you the property in the first place.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Advisors make commissions selling new developer inventory.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have an incentive to push your resale stock when they could earn more selling something fresh.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Developers who offer buybacks need room for their own margin plus commissions on the next sale.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why someone with a$200,000 share investment was offered$80,000 to exit.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Shares get hit hardest because they're completely tied to CBI demand.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: They generate returns that lag basically every other investment you could make.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: No one holds them for any reason except citizenship.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: None of the five Caribbean CBI countries publishes official house price indices or transaction databases.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Granada gives you the best data through IMI and Terra Caribbean, which tracked 366 transactions worth about 143 million Eastern Caribbean dollars in the first half of 2025.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the exception.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Caribbean CBI real estate delivers citizenship first, real estate second.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Titled properties in strong tourism markets might appreciate, but the structural setup favors developers over individual investors trying to exit.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can you sell on the open market?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, yes.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it probable?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is it impossible?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Also, no.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on the property, the location, and how much you're willing to lose.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: But don't pretend you're making a real estate investment.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're buying a passport with property attached.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about Turkey, where the contrast is striking.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey's real estate market runs with transparency you rarely see in emerging economies.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: The central bank publishes detailed residential property price indices that track performance across regions and time periods.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: December 2025 data showed national prices up 29% year over year in nominal Turkish lira terms.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: But real inflation adjusted returns dropped 1.4%.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Istanbul residential prices climbed 28.5% nominally while slipping slightly month over month.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Currency and inflation matter here because of the way the Citizenship by Investment Program works.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey recorded 1.7 million house sales in 2025, up 14.3% from the previous year.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Istanbul alone moved 280,000 units.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Compare that to Caribbean markets, where your entire buyer pool is a few hundred citizenship by investment applicants per year.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Comparatively, Turkey has a liquid market with depth.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Foreign buyers remain a small but consistent chunk of the market.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: They purchased about 21,500 properties nationally in 2025, with roughly 8,000 of those in Istanbul.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: All in all, foreign purchases make up about 1.3% of total market activity.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Turkish law says properties already used to qualify for citizenship can't be recycled for the next CBI applicant.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a problem, right?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: In practice, it does not matter greatly.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Citizenship applicants represent roughly 1.3% of all purchases in Turkey.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Cutting them out of your potential buyer pool removes a tiny slice of an already small segment.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're still selling to 98.7% of the market.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Turkish CBI eligible property behaves like Turkish real estate that just so happens to qualify for citizenship.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Resale follows normal market patterns, and neighborhood quality, macro conditions, and currency movements drive what happens to your money.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: You might make or lose money, but at least you're playing the same game as everyone else buying real estate in the country.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The real risk here is currency.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nominal gains in Turkish lira can deliver strong returns when the lira holds steady against the dollar, but exchange rate swings can multiply or wipe out your local price gains.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, let's look at the final large citizenship by investment market, Egypt.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt's housing market runs hot with supply and transactions activity that makes Caribbean volumes look microscopic.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Cairo delivered 32,000 homes in 2025, up 34% from the previous year.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Night Frank projects roughly 100,000 units coming in 2028.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: The new administrative capital's R7 district alone completed around 7,500 units in a single quarter.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: The market's energy comes from domestic demand that exceeds supply.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Egyptian banks offer aggressive leverage, and getting a loan is relatively straightforward.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: That keeps properties moving quickly.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Price things right, and you can flip fast.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But this is interesting.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt's citizenship by investment program barely registers in real estate despite competitive pricing.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Developers don't need CBI buyers to move inventory.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Local demand runs the show.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Commissions for citizenship-linked sales are minimal because developers can sell to Egyptians without the extra paperwork.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt opened its citizenship program to all real estate inventory in September 2023, after previously limiting it to government-administered properties.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But that didn't change the fundamental dynamics.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Egyptian CBI eligible property functions as normal real estate in a supply-heavy market.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Citizenship qualification adds nothing special and creates no constraints.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Properties go up or down based on location, development quality, timing, and broader economic conditions.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest factor for foreign investors is currency, just like in Turkey.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So before you wire money for any CBI property, ask yourself if citizenship wasn't part of this deal, would I still buy this property at this price in this market?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer is no, consider whether that citizenship is worth a total loss in property value.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, remember that most of these aforementioned citizenship by investment programs have alternative investment options, donations, public market investments, bank deposits, etc.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're buying a passport, price it accordingly.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in purchasing real estate in a foreign country, particularly for the benefit of a second residency and even citizenship, you may want to consider Panama's golden visa with minimal stay requirements.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: IMI Pro and industry expert Mikhail Thorup talks all about your options in the video on your screen now.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe and see you in the next one.