Over half million houses sold in Türkiye in H1

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - House sales in Türkiye totaled 545,0974 in the January-June period, down 3.7% on a yearly basis, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed on Wednesday.

In June alone, the number of houses, sold in Türkiye, was at 79,313 units, decreasing by 5.2% year-on-year, TurkStat stated.

Istanbul took the lion's share from house sales in June with 13,025 units, the capital Ankara followed it with 6,866, and the Aegean city Izmir with 4,361.

Mortgaged house sales decreased by 49.4% in June to 6,813 units year-on-year in June, and mortgaged house sales had an 8.6% share of all house sales.

In the January-June period, mortgaged house sales decreased by 57.7%.

In order to fight high inflation in the country, the country's Central Bank hiked interest rates from 8.5% to 50% during the last one year, causing strong declines in bank loans.

In June, 1,440 houses were sold to foreigners, down 45.1% on a yearly basis.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya (593), Istanbul (478), and another Mediterranean city Mersin (116) saw the highest number of house sales to foreigners.

"In June, the most house sales by country nationality were made to citizens of Russia with 332, Iran with 156, and Ukraine with 102," TurkStat said.

In the January-June period, house sales to foreigners decreased by 45.7% to 10,461 units.