Türkiye’s house sales hit new annual peak, rising 37.3 pct in September

ANKARA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — House sales in Türkiye reached a new high for the year in September, with nearly 141,000 units sold, according to official data released Thursday.
The Turkish Statistical Institute reported 140,919 house sales, marking a 37.3-percent increase compared to the same month last year.
This figure set the highest sales level since December last year.
Istanbul led the country with the most house sales at 21,314 units, followed by the capital, Ankara, with 13,205 units, and the Aegean city of Izmir with 7,612 units.
The housing market in Türkiye had been struggling after authorities implemented aggressive monetary tightening over a year ago to combat persistent inflation that has burdened households.
Mortgage-based sales saw a significant surge of 87.4 percent year-over-year in September, reaching 15,825 units, which represented 11.2 percent of all house sales.
In contrast, house sales to foreigners dropped by 31 percent year-over-year to 2,022 units in September, accounting for 1.4 percent of total sales. Istanbul led foreign sales with 783 units, followed by southern provinces Antalya with 548 and Mersin with 210.
Foreign sales have seen a slight decline this year after a period of high demand driven by Russian and Ukrainian buyers amid the ongoing conflict.
From January to September, sales to foreigners fell by 39.1 percent year-over-year, totaling 17,090 units. Russian citizens continued to be the top buyers, purchasing 346 properties in September, followed by Iranians with 163 and Iraqis with 139.
Overall, Türkiye’s house sales in the first nine months of the year rose by 5.2 percent, reaching 947,236 units. ■