According to the TurkStat, the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the country's economy, including property sales figures.
1. PROPERTY SALES STATS IN MAY 2020
In May 2020, 50,936 properties were sold in Turkey.
Home sales in Turkey decreased by 44.6% compared with the same month last year and amounted to 50,936 properties in May 2020. Istanbul is the top city when it comes to buying a property: 7,640 homes were sold in this city, which is 15% of the total sales. The next popular destination is Ankara with 4,939 sold homes, which is 9.7% of the total number. In Izmir, 3,096 housing units were sold, representing 6.1% of the total sales.
Property sales in 2018-2020 and May 2020
Property sales with mortgage loans
Real estate sales with mortgage loans amounted to 18,483 units in May 2020.
In Turkey, home sales with mortgage loans experienced a 23.9%increase in May 2020 comparing with the same month of the previous year and amounted to 18,483 units. The share of mortgage sales reached 36.3%. Istanbul took the first place with 2,570 homes bought with a mortgage, which is 13.9% of the total mortgage sales.
Property sales with other payment options reached the level of 32,453 homes.
2. NEWLY BUILT PROPERTY SALES
In May 2020, 16,860 new properties were sold in Turkey.
This is the first time when the number of homes sold in the country decreased by 54.7% compared with the same month of the previous year, amounting to 16,860 properties sold in May 2020. The share of new home sales reached 33.1%. Istanbul traditionally took the first place - 2,546 housing units, followed by Ankara - 991 housing units and Izmir - 996 housing units, respectively.
3. EXISTING HOME SALES
As for secondary housing, 34,076 homes were sold in May 2020.
Turkey's sales of secondary housing experienced a decrease of 37.7% compared with the same month of the previous year, and amounted to 34,076 homes sold in May 2020. The first place went to Istanbul - 5,994 housing units, then Ankara - 3,278 and Izmir - 2,100 housing units, respectively.
Housing sales during the period between January and May 2020 decreased by 2.2%
Within these five months, 434,757 housing units were sold, which is 2.2% less than the same period last year. As for property sales with mortgage loans, the figures increased by 118.2% and reached 164 870 homes, while other types of sales decreased by 26.8% to 269 887 units. New home sales decreased by 23.9% to 139,140 units during this period. Existing home sales rose by 13.0% to 295,617 properties.
4. PROPERTIES PURCHASED BY FOREIGNERS
In May 2020, 860 properties were sold to foreigners.
Home sales to foreigners dropped by 78.1% compared with the same month of the previous year and amounted to 860 housing units. In May 2020, Istanbul took first place in sales of housing to foreigners - 423 homes. Istanbul was followed by Antalya - 130 sales, Ankara - 72 sales, Izmir - 38 sales and Mersin - 29 sales.
Within the period between January and May, foreigners bought 27.0% less properties (12,598 homes) compared with the same period last year.
The largest number of housing was sold to Iranian citizens - 209 housing units, followed by Iraqi citizens - 143, Afghan citizens - 48, Chinese citizens - 46, Azerbaijani citizens - 42, respectively, Russian citizens took the 6th place with 40 housing units.