Turkish house sales see minor decrease in March

According to the report, a total of 105,394 houses were sold in the country during the month, marking a slight decrease of 0.1% compared to the same month of the previous year.

Istanbul maintained its position as the leader in house sales with 19,040 units sold, accounting for 18.1% of the national market share. Ankara and Izmir followed with 9,523 (9.0%) and 6,413 (6.1%) sales, respectively. Provinces like Ardahan (23), Bayburt (42), and Hakkari (55) reported the lowest sales figures.

Looking at the first quarter (January-March), house sales experienced a 1.3% decrease year-on-year, reaching 279,604 units.

Mortgage-backed house sales saw a significant drop of 49.0% in March compared to the previous year, totaling 12,880 units. This represents only 12.2% of all house sales in March. The first quarter mirrored this trend with a 53.0% year-on-year decrease in mortgaged sales, reaching 27,622 units.

On the other hand, non-mortgage house sales exhibited a positive trend, increasing by 15.3% year-on-year in March to reach 92,514 units. This category makes up 87.8% of the total sales for the month. The first quarter also saw a 12.3% year-on-year increase in non-mortgage sales, totaling 251,982 units.

Sales of new properties increased by 4.6% year-on-year in March, reaching 34,399 units, representing 32.6% of all sales. The first quarter followed a similar trend with a 5.2% year-on-year increase, totaling 88,256 new property sales.

Conversely, sales of previously owned properties saw a slight decrease of 2.2% year-on-year in March, reaching 70,995 units (67.4% of total sales). The first quarter results reflected a 4.0% year-on-year decline, with 191,348 second-hand properties sold.

Foreign property sales experienced a significant drop of 47.9% year-on-year in March, totaling 1,778 units, accounting for only 1.7% of all sales. Istanbul remained the top destination for foreign buyers with 652 sales, followed by Antalya (618) and Mersin (151). The first quarter followed a similar trend with a 48.0% year-on-year decrease, reaching 5,685 foreign property sales.

Looking at nationalities of foreign buyers, Russian citizens led the pack in March with 411 property purchases. They were followed by Iranian (182), Ukrainian (129), and Iraqi (82) citizens. (ILKHA)