By. Justin Mays
The Turkish housing market is booming. The Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) released very positive data trends for Turkish real estate. Turkish housing prices rose to an all-time high in April and upward trends are predicted to continue in Quarter 2. Sales shot up by 124% year-on-year (y-o-y). According to the CBRT, Turkey’s nationwide house prices soared by 30.6% during Q1 2021 at an average of TRY 4,054 (US$502) per square meter. In Turkey’s most expensive housing market, Istanbul, the average house price rose by 20.8% during the year to Q1 2021 to TRY 6,312 (US$782) per square meter with the price surge coming in at 28.6%. The CBRT also released information that the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) rose by a massive 32.4% y-o-y in April up from 32% a month earlier.
Sales continue to remain robust despite the growth; 59,166 properties were sold in May at a 16.2% y-o-y growth as reported by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Prices of new properties rose 35.6% year-on-year in April, while those of existing homes were up 31.6%. This period is one of the strongest y-o-y episodes of real house price growth over the past decade.
After a steady 38% annual rise between 2017-19 due to the pandemic during the same period foreign home purchases fell by 10.2% y-o-y to 41,298 units in 2020 according to TurkStat figures. This is expected to pick up in the coming months. With the decline of the Turkish Lira against the dollar in March 2021 after the removal of Central Bank governor Naci Agbal and an overall currency devaluation, prices are even more attractive for foreigners looking to buy property in Turkey. Most foreign buyers buy property in Istanbul, accounting for about 46% of total annual sales, followed by coastal Antalya (20%), capital city Ankara (6%) and then Bursa (5%).
