Real Estate industry very optimistic despite Pandemic

Optimism appears to be the keyword regarding the end-of-year total house purchases goal in Turkey. Industry experts professed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they expect to reach their end of year sales target of 1.4 million units.

How many houses have been sold in Turkey?

Between January and August this year, there was over one million properties sold in Turkey, which equates to a colossal increase of 42.6% year-on-year. Official data states that sales in August alone rose by 54.2%, which is equal to 170,408 units.

Sales and lockdown in Turkey

At the start of the year sales were strong, however, they were disrupted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures that had to be implemented across the country.

Ankara began lifting measures at the end of May with the rest of the country following in June. As things normalised, sales gained momentum again, sales then grew even stronger in June with the introduction of cheap loan campaigns offered by public lenders.

From June to August alone house sales topped 590,000 units. The cheap loans on offer impacted seriously on the housing market and saw mortgage sales rise by a colossal 263.7% in the first 8 months of the year with a total of 473,144 units. An expert commented that: “Contractors have consumed most of the stock they had. Now 2021 projects have started coming off the shelves.”

Increased Interest Rates

Now that interest rates on mortgages have risen again, sales will inevitably be affected to a certain degree but an expert said that he did not think there would be anything to prevent house sales reaching the target of 1.4 million units by the end of the year, saying: “We have exceeded the one million threshold in 8 months. We expect the year-end house sales to reach 1.4 million despite all the negative developments, especially the pandemic. This is a really important figure.”

Low Interest Mortgages in Turkey

An expert explained how the banking industry supports 250 subsidiaries and noted the importance of the low interest loans for mortgages was not only vital for employment but also for the economy. Data also confirmed that sales to foreign buyers in August reported an all-time high of 3,893 sales, bringing things back to pre-pandemic levels. There has also been increased interest from Indian and Chinese citizens recently.

In 2019, approximately 1.35 million houses were sold in Turkey, with 45,500 being purchased by foreigners, which was an increase of 14.7% on figures recorded in 2018.