Turkish house sales drop sharply in May

Total housing sales across Türkiye fell by 31.2% year-over-year in May, reaching 93,333 units, official data showed on Thursday, marking the sharpest decline since December 2023.

Sales had reached the year's peak in April with 126,000 units sold.

The decline in housing sales was largely influenced by the reduced number of working days due to the Eid holiday period.

The number of newly built (first-hand) homes sold across Türkiye in May fell by 27.9% compared to the same month of the previous year, totaling 30,196 units, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

Second-hand home sales, meanwhile, decreased by 32.7% year-over-year, totaling 63,137 units.

Mortgage-backed housing sales decreased by 2.8% in May compared to the same month last year, totaling 19,754 units. Other housing sales (non-mortgage sales) fell by 36.2% year-over-year to 73,579 units.

The data also showed that a decline in sales to foreign nationals extended in May, as they decreased by 27.0% compared to the same month last year, totaling 1,387 units.

Sales to foreigners represented 1.5% of all housing sales in May.

During the January-May period, sales to foreigners declined by 15.1% year-over-year and stood at 7,068 units.

In May, the highest number of homes sold by nationality were to Russian citizens (268 units), Iranian citizens (125 units), and Ukrainian citizens (88 units).

Similarly, sales of commercial properties fell by 30.9% to 11,434 units last month.

Across Türkiye, new commercial property sales in May decreased by 24.8% year-over-year to 3,255 units.

Second-hand commercial property sales declined by 33.1% over the same period, totaling 8,179 units.