House price index nearly doubled in February

ISTANBUL

Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) increased monthly by 13.5 percent in February, while it recorded an annual increase of 96.4 percent in nominal terms and 26.9 percent in real terms, according to data released by the Turkish Central Bank yesterday.

The RPPI (2017=100), which measures quality adjusted price changes of dwellings in Turkey stood at 317.6 in February.

In February, the RPPI increased monthly by 14.9, 16.0 and 12.7 percent in İstanbul, the largest metropolis of the country, the capital city Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir, respectively.

Residential house prices in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir recorded annual increases of 106.3, 97.1 and 90.1 percent, respectively.

The latest data showed that the construction cost index rose by 90.3 percent in February from a year ago, after increasing by 80 percent year-on-year in January.

In the first quarter of this year, 320,063 residential properties were sold in Turkey, up 21.7 percent compared to the same period of 2021.

Sales to foreigners in the first three months rose 45.1 percent year on year to 14,344 units.

In 2021, home sales to foreign nationals spiked nearly 44 percent from the previous year to an all-time high of 58,576 units, which corresponded to some 4 percent of all house sales in Turkey.

Iranians bought more than 10,000 properties in Turkey last year, topping the list of foreign buyers, while Iraqis purchased nearly 8,700 homes. Russians claimed the third sport as they bought some 5,379 homes.

Turkey has been generating around $7 billion per year through house sales to foreigners since 2017.