Russia is the leading buyer of property in Turkey

According to Tejarat News, official statistics show that sales of Turkish residential property more than doubled in May as the number of buyers jumped and the Russians topped the list for the second month in a row.

ایسنا Data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) show that despite high borrowing costs and spiraling prices, home sales rose 107.5 percent last month from last year to 122,768 homes.

Quarantine measures to curb the Corona virus pandemic in May last year saw sales fall to 55,166 units.

The data also show that mortgage sales in May rose 177.8 percent from a year earlier to 29,335, accounting for 23.9 percent of total sales in the period.

The rise comes amid declining supply and rising prices, but households continue to view real estate as an attractive investment tool to protect themselves against inflation, which has reached a 24-year high of nearly 73.5 percent.

Which Turkish cities have the most housing sales?

Home sales in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with a population of 22,148 units last month, had an initial share of 18 percent. It is followed by Ankara, the capital of Turkey with 11,497, and Izmir Province with 7,159 in the Aegean Sea.

These data show that sales in May fell by 7.73%.

From January to May, sales increased by 37.7% compared to the same period last year and reached 575,889 homes.

Sales to foreigners rose 235.7 percent year-on-year to 5,962 after rising 58.1 percent in April as they sought to use a Turkish citizenship scheme to buy a home, the institute said.

This plan has made Turkish real estate more attractive in recent years.

“Before the law was enacted, which increased the minimum purchase value of the project from $ 250,000 to $ 400,000, sales to foreigners increased,” officials said.

How many houses did the Russians buy in Turkey?

Russian citizens topped the list in May with 1,275 homes, followed by Iranians and Iraqis with 736 and 617 home purchases, respectively. According to the data, Russians and Ukrainians account for more than 25% of sales to foreigners.

Statistics show that from January to April, housing sales to foreigners reached 26,753 units, an increase of 70% over the same period last year.

Sales to foreigners also bring foreign currencies into the Turkish economy and help support the lira as it remains under selling pressure.

Officials in the sector estimated that $ 10 billion would enter the economy in 2021 by selling homes to foreigners, reaching a record 58,576 units in 2021, up 43.5 percent from a year earlier.

The previous annual record was set in 2019 with 45,483 devices.