Home sales continue to decline but price increase slows again

ANKARA

Home sales have declined for a third month since the start of this year as mortgage-financed sales continued to plunge but the pace of annual growth in home prices continued to ease.

In April, a total of 75,569 homes changed hands, marking an 11.8 percent decline from a year ago. Homes sales also dropped 28 percent from March, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on May 17.

In January and March, the housing market contracted 17.8 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. The month of February was an exception when home sales showed a 17.3 percent year-on-year increase.

Mortgaged home sales collapsed last month, falling 67.5 percent from a year ago to only 7,000 units, which came on top of the 49 percent annual decline in March.

In the first four months of 2024, total residential property sales dropped 3.7 percent from the same period of last year to 355,173 units. Mortgaged home sales were down 57 percent on an annual basis to around 35,000.

The numbers of TÜİK also showed that home sales to foreign nationals plunged nearly 51 percent in April compared with the same month of 2023.

Foreigners bought 1,272 properties in Türkiye, with Russians topping the list of international homebuyers.

Last month, Russian nationals purchased 293 homes, followed by Iranians at 117 and Ukrainians at 91. Germans and Kazakh nationals were other big buyers.

Foreigners bought most of the homes in the southern province of Antalya at 454. Istanbul and the southern province of Mersin came second and third at 407 and 149, respectively.

From January to April, nearly 7,000 homes were sold to foreigners, marking a 48.4 percent decline from a year ago.

 Home price growth slows

Separate data from the Central Bank unveiled on May 17 showed that the pace of annual growth in residential property prices continued to slow in March.

The residential property price index (RPPI) rose 52 percent year-on-year in nominal terms after rising 58.3 percent in February.

On average, home price was 31,885 Turkish Liras/square meter.

In real terms, the annual increase in the index was 9.8 percent, said the Central Bank.

The RPPI increased 1.2 percent monthly in March, which also compared favorably with the 2.2 percent month-on-month rise recorded in February.

The RPPI for new dwellings was up 53.2 percent annually, while the index for existing dwellings gained 52.5 percent from March 2023.