The housing market saw another double-digit annual increase in sales last month, with mortgage-financed sales soaring 183 percent, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on Feb. 14.
Home sales have been on the rise constantly on an annual basis since July last year.
In January, residential property sales increased by 39.7 percent from a year ago to 112,173. This, however, marked the lowest level in the last eight months. In December, for instance, some 213,000 homes changed hands in the country, the highest in three years.
Mortgaged home sales soared 183 percent last month year-on-year to 16,726 units, accounting for 14.9 percent of all sales, the statistics authority said.
Istanbul topped all provinces in home sales. In the mega city, nearly 19,000 units were sold in January. The capital Ankara and İzmir, the country’s third largest city, ranked second and third in sales at 10,158 and 6,634 units, respectively.
First-home sales rose by 29.8 percent in January to reach 32,785, while second-hand sales grew 44.2 percent year-on-year to 79,388.
Meanwhile, the downward trend in home sales to foreign nationals continued in January.
Sales to foreigners fell 24.9 percent year-on-year last month, totaling 1,547, TÜİK data showed.
Istanbul saw the highest number of foreign house buyers with 611, followed by the southwestern resort city of Antalya with 469, and the southern province of Mersin with 118.
The highest number of foreign house buyers was from Russia with 248, followed by Iran with 162, and Iraq with 103.
In the whole of 2024, 1.48 million homes were sold in Türkiye,marking a 20.6 percent increase from 2023.
Mortgaged sales, however, fell 10.8 percent annually to around 159,000 units.
TÜİK separately reported on Feb. 13 that the construction production index increased by 14.4 percent in December, accelerating from the 11.4 percent rise recorded in the previous month.
Construction production increased 6.7 percent in the month after rising 3.5 percent in November.
On an annual basis, the construction of buildings index increased by 17.6 percent, the civil engineering index increased by 11.1 percent and the specialized construction activities index increased by 6.2 percent in December, TÜİK said.
Source: hurriyetdailynews