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Feb 5, 2023

Record 1.5M houses sold in Turkey in 2020

Turkish housing sales surged 11.2% year-on-year in 2020 data showed on Thursday (January 14), driven by cheap loans extended to ease economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 1.5 million houses, an all-time high, changed hands in Turkey last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

Istanbul: Turkey’s favorite city for property

Of those sales, 40,812 were sold to foreigners, with approximately 50% (or 19,175 units) of them in Istanbul, the country’s largest city by population. House sales to foreigners slipped 10.3% year-on-year in 2020.

Following Istanbul, the holiday resort town of Antalya came in second with 7,735 properties last year. The capital Ankara ranked third with 2,746 properties.

Iranians topped the list of foreign buyers who bought 7,189 properties, followed by Iraqis with 6,674, Russians with 3,078, Afghans with 1,929 and Azerbaijanis with 1,279.

In overall sales, Istanbul maintained its top spot with 17.7% of house transfers last year. Ankara and the western province of Izmir followed with 10.5% and 6.2% shares, respectively.

Mortgages for house sales in the country climbed to 573,337 in 2020, an increase of 72.4% compared to the previous year.

Sales with mortgages had a 38% share of all house sales in Turkey. Currently, the mortgage rate is between 1.36% and 1.90% per month in Turkey.

As for December, the housing sales fell 47.6% year-on-year to 105,981 houses, the data showed, recording a fall for the fourth month in a row as borrowing costs rose from a summer low.

The data showed mortgage sales fell 70.9% and accounted for nearly 14% of the total.

Turkey sees biggest property price growth

Benefiting from overseas interest and a strong economy, Turkey is once again leading the pack in property price growth, according to Knight Frank’s latest Global House Price Index—an analysis of residential prices in 56 countries and territories—released in December 2020.

Prices in the country grew 27% during the third quarter of 2020, though “in real terms, once inflation of 14% is deducted, annual price growth sits closer to 13%,” the property consultants and estate agency said. It marked the third consecutive quarter that Turkey has topped the ranking.

Turkey’s home sales report 2015 - 2020

Turkey’s residential property sales surpassed 7 million homes during the past 5 years as locals bought 6.9 million houses while foreigners purchased 154,871 based on data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK).

Foreign buyers became Turkish citizens

Foreign residential sales showed a rapid increase in the last year due to the high exchange rate and legislative amendments that eased the minimum requirements for acquiring Turkish citizenship, which has led investors from all over the world to benefit from this opportunity and acquire residential property in the country.

Under regulations introduced on Sept. 19, 2018, foreigners who own real estate in Turkey worth a minimum of $250,000 – down from $1 million – are eligible for Turkish citizenship.

According to the Interior Ministry's General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs, some 2,611 foreign buyers became Turkish citizens a year after the amendments were introduced.

Foreigners were first able to buy property in 2001, and since then Turkish authorities have continually revised and simplified the process to attract investment in the housing market from overseas. Buying a house or owning a property in Turkey can be completed in just one day.

Turkey offers a golden opportunity for settlement and investment, offering a distinguished opportunity to obtain Turkish citizenship for the family during a record period. Akarkom team of real estate consultants is ready to help you choose the most suitable properties according to your budget and requirements from within a bouquet of carefully selected villas, apartments and shops.

Edited by Akarkom. Based on DS                           
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