Home sales remain strong, rising 64 percent in November

ANKARA

The annual increase in home sales continued for a fifth consecutive month in November, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on Dec. 18.

Last month, more than 153,000 homes changed hands, marking a robust 63.6 percent increase, following the 76 percent rise recorded in October, when the marker saw over 165,000 sales.

Mortgaged sales soared 316 percent from November 2023 to 21,804, which accounted for 14.2 percent of all sales in the housing market, the statistics authority said.

Experts argue that several factors are playing a role in the increase in home sales experienced in the past couple of months.

The decline in home prices — in real terms — appeared to be one of the major factors, they say.

The Central Bank reported earlier this week the residential property price index declined by 12 percent in real terms. The index advanced 2.8 percent monthly, while the annual increase in nominal terms was 29.8 percent.

Consumers are also opting to buy homes now as they anticipate that prices will start to pick up again in the coming months, according to experts.

Banks have lowered, though limited, interest rates on housing loans, which also spurred sales in the housing market, experts noted.

Some individual investors are also taking out their money from deposit accounts and pouring it into the housing market, representatives of the sector say.

Istanbul was once again the hottest city in the property market. Some 26,320 homes were sold in the mega city in November.

The capital Ankara and İzmir, the country’s third largest city, ranked second and third in home sales at 14,916 and 8,583, respectively.

TÜİK data also showed the annual decline in home sales to foreign nationals slowed from 16.3 percent in October to 8.2 percent in November.

Foreigners bought a total of 2,151 homes in Türkiye last month, slightly higher than the 2,122 residential properties sold to foreign nationals in October.

In the first 11 months of 2024, home sales to foreigners fell by 35 percent year-on-year to 21,363 units.

Russians topped the list of foreign homebuyers in January-November at 4,229, followed by Iranians at 1,927 and Ukrainians at 1,450.

From January to November, 1.27 million homes were sold across Türkiye, a 16.4 percent increase from a year ago.

Mortgaged sales, however, declined by 21.3 percent annually to 135,209 units, TÜİK said.