Property sales rise for third month in a row, foreign demand declines in Turkey

ANKARA

Housing sales in Turkey surged for the third month in a row in October, although sales to foreigners continued to decline, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Nov. 23. 

Property sales soared 25.1 percent year-on-year in October to 130,274 units after surging by 17.8 percent year-on-year in September to 108,818 units.  

Istanbul again had the highest share of house sales with 16.2 percent and 21,094 houses sold, followed by the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir. 

Mortgaged housing sales across Turkey totaled 48,810 units, showing a 71.8 percent of year-on-year increase.
 
Property sales with mortgages represented around 37 percent of all sales in Turkey, according to the report.   

Sales to foreigners, however, showed a 30 percent decline compared to the same month last year.  

Of the 1,566 units sold to foreigners in October, the Mediterranean resort of Antalya took the lion’s share with 467 units, followed by Istanbul with 423 units and the northwestern province of Bursa with 115 units.       

Most property sales in Turkey were made to Iraqis in October, according to the TÜİK data. Iraqis bought 257 houses, followed by Saudis with 159 units, Kuwaitis with 135 units and Russians with 132 units.