Housing market remains weak, sales plunge 21 percent

ISTANBUL

The year-on-year decline in home sales deepened in November, with sales falling 20.6 percent from the same month of last year to around 93,500, the numbers from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Dec. 15.

In October, nearly 94,000 residential properties changed hands, pointing to 8.7 percent annual decline.

Mortgaged homes sales plunged 69 percent compared to November 2022 to a little more than 5,200.

In the first 11 months of 2023, mortgaged sales were down 34 percent from a year ago to 172,000, the data showed.

Last month, foreigners bought 2,342 homes in Türkiye, marking a steep 61 percent year-on-year decline. Sales to foreign nationals accounted for 2.5 percent in total property sales.

Most of the residential property sales to foreign nationals took place in the southern province of Antalya, which is home to large Russian and Ukrainian populations, who fled the war and relocated to the city.

In November, foreigners bought 790 homes in the popular holiday destination, down from more than 2,600 properties sold in the same month of 2022. Home sales to foreign nationals in Antalya in the January-November period plunged 38 percent year-on-year to 12,000.

As was the case in previous months, Russians topped the list of foreign homebuyers. They bought 637 residential properties in the country in November.

Iranians and Ukrainians ranked second and third with 234 and 128 purchases.

From January to November, total home sales in Türkiye declined by 14.9 percent from a year ago to around 1.09 million, the TÜİK data showed.