The coronavirus pandemic has affected overseas home sales all over the world. Turkey, which has shown itself to be a safe country with a developed healthcare system, has become one of the leading countries in real estate sales to foreign investors. According to the Anadolu news agency, in the first nine months of 2020, sales of Turkish housing to foreigners decreased by 18 percent compared to last year and amounted to 25,165 units. However, in September 2020 Turkey experienced a considerable increase in apartment sales. The September stats were 26.1 percent higher than last year's September and 35.3 percent higher than in August 2020.
What is the sales situation in other countries popular with overseas property buyers?
Apartment sales to foreigners in Spain decreased by 40 percent in the first six months of 2020 (22,850 units). Sales of apartments to foreigners in the once popular Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, fell by 53 percent from January to June. In the second quarter of 2020, only 233 properties were sold in Lisbon.
From January to August 2020, 368 real estate investors (as well as 733 members of their families) got "golden passports" in Greece. This figure is 90 percent lower than the total number of applications approved in 2019. Last year 3,428 investors and 7,647 members of their families got Greek citizenship by property investment.
In Montenegro, foreigners bought only 1,000 apartments in 8 months for 62.8 million euros. For instance, last year, 2,500 housing units were sold to foreigners in the country, the total amount of transactions amounted to 117 million euros.
The worst affected sector of the economy in Italy and France was the real estate sector. In Italy, the volume of apartment sales to foreigners fell 15.5 percent in the first quarter of 2020 and 27.2 percent in the second. From March to September, rental supply in major Italian cities increased by 14.2 percent, while demand for rental apartments in Italy decreased by 13.2 percent. In Milan, the supply of rental housing increased by 68.7 percent. A similar dramatic situation was observed with home sales to foreigners. Analysts' forecasts for next year are as follows: home sales in France are expected to decline by 25 percent, in England - by 15 percent at an annual rate.