Home sales soar 54 percent in November

ANKARA

The number of residential properties sold in Turkey jumped 55.5 percent year-on-year in November, reflecting the positive impact of the substantial rate cuts the Central Bank has delivered this year.

Since the start of 2019, the Central Bank has slashed the key one-week repo rate- by a total 1,200 basis points to 12 percent down from 24 percent.

Following the Central Bank’s easing, local lenders also reduced interest rates on housing loans, giving a boost to house sales.

A total of 138,372 houses changed hands in November, while mortgage-financed home sales soared nearly 725 percent on an annual basis to 43,911 units, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜiK) reported on Dec. 17.

Most of the home sales -18 percent in total or 24,924 units- took place in Istanbul, the country’s largest city, followed by capital Ankara with 10.5 percent, or 14,406 units.

Property sales in Istanbul and Ankara increased by 55.2 percent and 85.2 percent, respectively, compared with the same month of last year.

The western province of İzmir saw a sharp 76.6 percent increase in home sales to 8,428 in November, which corresponded to a 6.1 percent share in total property sales in the country.

First home sales also increased by a robust 19.8 percent increase on an annual basis to 48,909 units, while second-hand sales jumped 83.3 percent from a year ago to 89,463.

In January-November, a total of 1.15 million homes were sold across the country versus 1.24 million units sold a year ago.

TÜİK also reported that mortgage sales increased by 4.7 percent on an annual basis to 282,230 units in the first eleven months of the year.

Last year, over 1.37 million property sales were recorded in Turkey while around 650,000 of them were newly built houses.

Data from TÜİK also showed that the number of properties sold to foreigners slipped 14.6 percent year-on-year in November.

Foreign nationals purchased a total of 3,988 houses in Turkey, including 1,549 units in Istanbul.

Following Istanbul, the Mediterranean holiday resort of Antalya came second with sales to foreigners of 825 properties, while the capital Ankara ranked third with 218 units.

Foreigners also bought 128 properties in the western province of Bursa.

Official data showed that Iraqis topped the list of foreign buyers in November with 575 properties, followed by Iranians with 500 units, Russians with 300 and Afghanis with 216.

Saudis purchased 174 properties in Turkey, ranking fifth in the list.

In January-August, foreigners purchased 40,185 houses, up from 35,103 units in the same period of 2018.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank reported yesterday that the house price index increased by 6.74 percent in October from a year earlier that followed the 6.62 percent annual rise in the previous month.

The price index for new dwellings showed a 9.61 percent annual increase while existing dwelling prices rose by 6.23 percent from a year ago in October.

According to data, house prices declined by 0.51 percent on an annual basis in Istanbul, while the price index for Ankara rose by 5.27 percent year-on-year.

House prices in İzmir increased by 5.94 percent in October from a year earlier, the Central Bank noted.