House sales in Türkiye see decline in 2023

ANKARA

House sales decreased by 17.5 percent to 1,225,926 in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to official numbers made public on Jan. 19.

Istanbul had the highest share of house sales with 16.2 percent, followed by Ankara with 9.3 percent and İzmir with 5.3 percent, Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said.

The provinces with the lowest number of house sales were Ardahan with 426, Hakkari with 501 and Tunceli with 970.

House sales to foreigners decreased by 48.1 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year to 35,005, making up a 2.9 percent share of all house sales in the country, according to TÜİK.

The Mediterranean resort province of Antalya was the most popular location, with 12,702 home sales to foreigners last year. Istanbul came second with 11,229 sales, followed by the southern province of Mersin with 3,016.

Russian citizens, who bought 10,560 houses in Türkiye last year, topped the list of foreign home buyers.

Iranian citizens followed Russians with 4,272 home sales, ahead of Iraqis, who bought 1,917 houses in the country last year.

House sales to foreigners also saw a decrease in the last month of last year, with a drop of 67.7 percent compared to the same month of the previous year to a total of 2,064.

Istanbul ranked first with 796 home sales to foreigners last December, followed by Antalya with 609 sales and Mersin with 230.

Meanwhile, mortgaged house sales decreased by 72.3 percent in December compared to the same month of the previous year and became 6,042.

As for 2023, mortgaged house sales decreased by 36.6 percent to 177,748 compared to the previous year.

The share of mortgaged house sales in total sales was 4.4 percent for December 2023 and 14.5 percent for 2023.

Some 1,800 of mortgaged house sales in December and 53,455 of mortgaged house sales in 2023 were first sales.