Domestic property sales slip in Turkey, while foreign demand soars

ANKARA

While the annual number of residential properties sold in Turkey dropped in February, foreign demand for Turkish properties soared, official data has shown.

Property sales decreased by 5.4 percent to 95,953 units in February 2018, compared to the same month of the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said in a statement on March 21.

Istanbul—Turkey’s most populated city—boasted the largest share of house sales with 16.9 percent, or 16,227 houses, the institute said.

The capital Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir followed Istanbul with 9,686 units (10.1 percent) and 5,965 units (6.2 percent), respectively.

Mortgaged house sales across Turkey also saw a 27.8 percent decrease in February compared to the same month of the previous year. A total of 27,916 units of mortgaged properties were sold in the second month of 2018.

House sales with mortgages had a 29.1 percent share of all house sales in Turkey, according to TÜİK data.

Sales to foreigners

TÜİK data also showed that the number of properties sold to foreigners soared by 32.4 percent year-on-year in February.

Some 1,729 houses were sold to foreigners, with approximately 35 percent (or 604 units) of them in Istanbul.

This number was followed by the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya with sales of 415 units.

The official data showed Iraqis topped the list of buyers in the month with 308 properties. Saudis followed with 178 units, Russians with 128 units, Iranians with 122 units and Afghans with 118 units.