Housing market expansion continues at slower pace

ANKARA

Home sales increased by 20 percent year-on-year in February, but the annual expansion in the housing market eased from the previous month’s 40 percent.

Some 112,818 homes changed hands last month, slightly higher than the 112,173 sales in January, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on March 13.

Mortgaged home sales surged 90 percent from a year ago to around 17,000, accounting for 14.9 percent of all sales in the housing market. But this marked a sharp slowdown from the 183 percent annual increase recorded in mortgage-financed sales in January.

In the first two months of 2025, total home sales rose by 29 percent annually to 224,991 units, with mortgaged sales surging 127 percent from the same period of 2024 to 33,504.

The decline in sales to foreigners continued in February, showed TÜİK data.

Foreigners purchased 1,457 residential properties in Türkiye last month, a 21 percent year-on-year decline.

Russians toped the list of foreign homebuyers with 256, followed by Iranians with 133 and Iraqis with 99.

From January to February, home sales to foreign nationals were down 23 percent from a year ago to 3,004 units.