Turkish housing prices rise 7.3 percent this year

Ankara - Anadolu Agency

The price of new houses in Turkey increased by 7.3 percent in October compared with the same month of the previous year, according to the Reidin-GYODER New House Price index, which was released on Nov. 14.

New home prices in Turkey increased 1.33 percent in October from the previous month, according to a report prepared by Garanti Bank in collaboration with Reidin-GYODER -- an association of real estate investment companies.

The Turkish Composite House Price index, which measures the rate of price variations of Turkish single-family homes, and which are based on property sales records in public land registries, increased 1.58 percent compared with the previous month, and climbed 17.33 percent year-on-year.

"The increase in October is on par with the increase in the inflation increase of 1.90 percent in October," said Orhan Vatandaş, lead data analyst of the Reidin-GYODER New House Price index.

The highest rise in home prices this year was in Istanbul, where prices jumped 22.33 percent, while the lowest were recorded in Kocaeli, a neighbor of Istanbul, with only an 8.61 percent increase.

The price index for Istanbul has increased about 8-10 points more within five years compared with the country as a whole. Vatandaş said the high cost of land in dynamic  metropolitan areas was responsible for the large price hikes in Istanbul, where more than 14 million people live.

Property sales in Turkey increased 13.2 percent from last year during the month of September, according to House Sale Statistics released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Oct 24. 115,786 houses changed hands in September.

The report said that more than 14 percent of new homes in October were sold to foreigners.

Of those sales, 1,857 were sold to foreigners, with approximately half of them in Antalya, the country's holiday hot spot. The sales to foreign buyers increased 81 percent in September from the same period of the previous year.

Istanbul ranked second in foreign property sales with 546 properties. The southwestern province of Aydin ranked third with 144 properties.

Around 13,611 real estates were sold to foreign buyers in the first nine months of the year, an increase from 12,181 the year before.

"Turkey offers competitively priced property to foreign buyers, Turkish hospitality, a more economical lifestyle and affordable shopping compared with their native countries," said All Real Estate Agents Federation President Haci Ali Taylan.
      
"These reasons make investors eager to buy properties in the country," he said.

But high-end properties were not popular this year.

Nizameddin Asa, president of Istanbul's Real Estate Association, said that there is now no activity in the market for high-end real estate. "There are too many construction projects for luxury houses, but buyers are limited for such projects due to high prices."

The unit cost in a luxury project in Istanbul starts at $10,000 per square meter (10.76 square feet).

"You can see from how many commercials are on television for these luxury projects, that they cannot sell," Asa added.