Expansion in housing market continues in September

ISTANBUL

Home sales increased by a strong 37.3 percent year-on-year in September, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has shown.

The expansion in the housing market continued for a third month in a row with sales rising 16 percent in July and 9.9 percent in August annually.

Last month, 140,919 homes changed hands across Türkiye, which also marked a 5 percent increase from August.

Mortgaged sales soared 87.4 percent from September to 18,825 units, accounting for 11.2 percent of all sales, showed TÜİK data.

This marked the first annual increase in mortgaged house sales for the first time this year.

Home sales to foreign nationals, however, continued to decline in September, falling 31 percent annually to around 2,000 units.

Foreigners bought 783 homes in Istanbul, while sales to foreign nationals amounted to 548 in the southern provinces of Antalya and 210 units in Mersin.

In the first nine months of 2024, residential property sales to foreigners were down 39 percent year-on-year to a little more than 17,000 units.

From January to September, a total of 947,236 units were sold in the country, pointing to a 5.2 percent increase from the same period of last year, said TÜİK.

Some experts argue that consumers started to buy homes because they anticipate a decline in housing loan interest rates in line with the expected rate cut from the Central Bank. Lower interest rates will mean higher demand for homes, which will push up prices.

People are acting now to buy homes before prices go up, according to experts.