Average house price exceeds 1 mln Turkish Liras

ISTANBUL

In the face of rising construction costs and strong demand, house prices in Turkey have increased by 147 percent in April from a year ago.

Average house price in the country rose to 1.14 million Turkish Liras ($71,000), or 8,252 liras per square meter, according to data from endeksa.com, which gathers data on the housing market.

In Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial and financial hub, house prices rose by 173 percent, and the average price was 1.6 million liras. In Ankara, the average price was 802,000, while the annual increase was 129 percent.

House prices leaped 183 percent in Antalya, which is the highest increase recorded among all provinces. In the city, the average house price climbed to 1.42 million liras. Russians and Ukrainians, who flee the war, are moving to Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, creating extra demand for homes.

Russians bought 1,152 homes in Turkey in April alone.

Meanwhile, officials at the Treasury and Finance Ministry are scrutinizing home prices after the government announced a package to offer cheap loans to potential homebuyers.

According to the scheme, loans with a monthly rate of 0.99 percent and a maturity period of 10 years will be provided to first-time homebuyers for houses worth up to 2 million Turkish Liras ($130,000).

So far, officials have identified 64,000 people who have excessively hiked the prices of their properties put up for sale in the market.

Most of them are regular homeowners, while the others are realtors and those engage in second-hand house trading, an expert said.

Home sales increased by 38.8 percent on an annual basis in April, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on May 17.

Some 133,058 properties changed hands in the month.

Mortgage-financed home sales rose by 83 percent from a year ago to 17,514, which corresponded to 24.1 percent of all residential property sales.