High home prices lead to boom in demand for land and fields
Gülistan Alagöz - ISTANBUL
The desire for a more detached life after the pandemic has led to an increase in the number of rural and field sales. As the remote working model became permanent in many sectors, demand has gradually increased.
Those who had shelved their dream of buying a house after the record increase in house prices have turned to buying land. The ability to invest with a smaller budget enabled a large segment of the population to turn to this area.
Looking at the first six months of the year, the number of home sales across the country decreased by 22.1 percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to 565,779. According to Istanbul Real Estate Appraisal (IGD) data, the sales of non-residential real estate, which consists of offices, shops, land and fields, approached 800,000, and these sales are predicted to be mainly land and fields.
"The pandemic period has increased interest in detached living and accelerated the spread of remote working practices,” said Ahmet Büyükduman, managing partner of IGD.
“While in some industries employees who are freed from physical ties to the workplace have begun to migrate to regions where the cost of living is lower, investors who expect this trend to continue in the future appear to have turned to rural land investments,” he added.
“In addition to this interest in the countryside, the motivation to preserve the value of their savings in a high inflation environment is also increasing interest in real estate in general, while rapidly rising housing prices are becoming unaffordable for certain segments of the population, causing smaller savings to turn to land investments. Despite the decline in residential property sales in the first half of the year, non-residential property sales remained at the same level. Despite the housing market, which is likely to weaken further as monetary tightening policies push up lending rates, I expect the non-credit-dependent land market to remain relatively buoyant.”
According to a study by Endeksa, a real estate valuation platform, the price per square meter of land, vineyards, gardens and agricultural areas for sale in Türkiye was 330 Turkish Liras as of June 2023, and the price has increased by 119 percent in the last year. Since the beginning of 2023, the increase has reached 34 percent.
This increase was driven by the fear of earthquakes and tiny houses, where the demand increased after the pandemic.
Among the 10 provinces with the highest square meter unit value, Yalova was the province with the highest annual value change with 127 percent. Yalova was followed by İzmir with an increase of 123 percent and Istanbul with an increase of 115 percent.
Yalova was also the province with the highest unit square meter prices of land in Türkiye, with a price per square meter of 956 liras. It was followed by Istanbul with 903 liras and Osmaniye with 716 liras.
According to the data of June 2023, the average price of a square meter of land in Türkiye was 2,662 liras and the price of land increased by 91 percent last year. Since the beginning of 2023, the increase in zoned land was calculated at 26 percent.
Sinop was the province with the highest annual value change among the 10 provinces with the highest square meter value, with an increase of 156 percent.
The Black Sea province was followed by Yalova with a 149 percent increase and Kocaeli with a 112 percent increase.
Antalya was the province with the highest land prices with a price per square meter of 5,077 liras. It was followed by Istanbul with 4,926 liras and İzmir with 4,566 liras.
In addition, the unit square meter price of zoned land in Kırklareli, which is close to Istanbul and can be considered risk-free in terms of earthquake risk, increased by 55 percent from 1,454 liras to 2,253 liras between January-June 2023, exceeding the Turkish average.
