Turkey sees over 550,000 housing sales in H1

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey saw 552,812 houses sold in the first half of 2021, the country's statistical authority said Monday.

The number of residential properties sold in the country fell 11.5% year-on-year in January-June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.

The institute noted that 167,878 new houses were sold across the country, while the rest were second-hand sales.

The mortgaged housing sales amounted to 104,168 – going down 60.9% – with a 19% share of all sales in the first six months of this year.

Housing sales to foreigners also decreased in the same period.

Some 20,488 houses were sold to foreigners in the first half, down 43.7% year-on-year.

Istanbul, the country's largest city by population, enjoyed the lion's share of those sales to foreigners, with 10,108 units.

The Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya followed with 3,990 properties, while the capital Ankara came third with 1,276.

The data showed that Iranian citizens made up the largest group of foreign sales according to nationality, as they bought 3,070 houses in Turkey.

They were followed by Iraqis with 3,019 housing units sold, Russians with 1,759, Afghans with 1,277, and Kazakhs with 787 in the first six months of this year.

- Sales figures for June

A total of 134,731 houses changed hands in June, down 29.1% compared to the same month last year.

House sales to foreigners jumped 185.3% on an annual basis to reach 4,748 units this June.