Housing sales to foreigners hit record high in Turkey

ANKARA

REUTERS photo

Property sales to foreigners hit record high levels in May with the sale of 1,982 units, marking a 21.3 percent increase from the same month in 2014, despite a general slowing-down in the sector across Turkey, according to data revealed by the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK). 

Istanbul saw the largest volume of property sales to foreigners in May with 636 units, followed by the Mediterranean resort of Antalya with 546 properties, the northwestern province of Bursa with 128 properties, the Aegean province of Aydın with 111, and the northwestern province of Yalova with 104.

The largest proportional increase in housing sales to foreigners was seen in the Black Sea province of Trabzon with 90 properties sold in May, marking a 125 percent increase from the same month of 2014, according to TÜİK data.  Bursa and Yalova also lured considerably more foreigners than they did last year. 

Meanwhile, over 8,000 properties were sold to foreigners in Turkey throughout the first five months of the year, marking a 19 percent increase from the same period of 2014. Some 2,611 of these properties were sold in Istanbul, 2,252 in Antalya, and 551 in Bursa, according to TÜİK data. 

Throughout the whole of 2014, the number of properties sold to foreigners reached 18,959. Antalya was again the top favorite with 6,542, followed by Istanbul with 5,580, and Aydın with 1,191 properties. Last year, foreigners bought properties worth $4.32 billion in Turkey, marking an all-time annual high, according to sector representatives. 

In Turkey, total home sales increased by 19.4 percent to 108,000 units in May, against the same month of the previous year, while mortgaged home sales rose by 34.7 percent, having a 37.2 percent share of all property sales over the same period.

The mortgaged house sales across the country rose by 96.5 percent in April on annual basis, while total house sales increased by 42.7 percent over the same period.

Analysts said there was a general increase in property sales compared to last year, but sales have been slowing down due to the general election, the holy month of Ramadan and the rise in mortgage rates.