Home sales leaped 108 percent in May

ANKARA 

Home sales rose by 107.5 percent in May from the same month of 2021, while house purchases by foreigners in Turkey increased by 236 percent, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed.

A total of 122,768 houses were sold last month compared to 59,166 units that changed hands in May 2021 and 50,936 in the same month of 2020.

New house sales rose by 80.5 percent in May on an annual basis to 32,860 units, while second-hand house sales leaped nearly 120 percent from a year ago to some 90,000.

Mortgage-finance house sales, which accounted for some 24 percent of all sales, exhibited a strong 178 percent increase annually to 29,335 units.

Istanbul once again was the hottest property market. Last month, more than 22,000 houses changed hands in Turkey’s most populous city. Ankara ranked second at 11,500 units sold, while around 7,200 houses were sold in İzmir, the country’s third-largest city.

Despite the annual increase in May, house sales declined from April, when more than 133,000 houses were sold across the country.

TÜİK data also showed that sales rose by 37.7 percent in the first five months of 2022, as a total of 576,000 houses were sold.

New house sales climbed 28.2 percent annually to 164,000 units, while second-hand house sales increased by 42 percent to 412,000 in January-May.

Mortgage-finances house sales also exhibited a robust 72.3 percent increase from the same period of 2021 to 130,000.

Sales to foreigners soar

In May, foreigners purchased 5,962 houses in Turkey, marking a staggering 236 percent increase from a year ago. Property sales to foreign national corresponded to 4.9 percent of all house sales in Turkey.

Istanbul was the favorite property market among foreign nationals. Last month, foreigners bought more than 2,400 houses in the city, Antalya ranked second at 1,885.

Russians and Ukrainians have been moving to Antalya, which is located on the Mediterranean’s coast, since the start of the war, buying or renting houses in this holiday hotspot.

Foreigners also purchased 264 houses in the southern province of Mersin.

Russians topped the list of homebuyers in May. Russian nationals bought 1,275 houses in Turkey last month, followed by Iranians at 736. Homes sales to Iraqis and Germans stood at 617 and 247, respectively. Ukrainians purchased 241 houses in May.

From January to May, foreign nationals bought a total of 26,753 houses in Turkey, pointing to a 70 percent increase from a year ago.