House sales to foreign citizens in Turkey jump 45 percent in a year as home ownership rate drops

Residential property sales to foreign citizens increased by 31 percent in March compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Sales to foreigners in the first quarter of the year rose by 45.1 percent on an annual basis to 14,344, the data showed.

Some 5,567 properties were sold to foreigners last month, with 2,245 sales in İstanbul, the largest city of the country.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed İstanbul with 1,434 property sales and the capital of Ankara was third with 347.

Citizens of Iran bought the highest number of properties with 784 and were followed by citizens of Iraq 741 sales and of Russia with 547 sales.

Turkey grants citizenship to foreigners who buy a residential property worth 250,000 US dollars in the country. After a cabinet meeting on Wednesday (April 13), the government decided to increase this amount to 400,000 dollars, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).

Home ownership

Overall house sales in the country increased by 20.6 percent in March on an annual basis, according to TurkStat.

A total of 134,170 houses changed hands last month, up from 111,241 in March 2021.

Mortgaged house sales amounted to 30,271 in March, up 38.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 22.6 percent of all sales.

Despite the increase in house sales, the homeownership rate in the country has significantly decreased in the past decade. It dropped from 61.1 percent in 2014 to 58.8 percent in 2019 and 57.8 percent in 2020, according to the TurkStat figures. The 2021 figures have not yet been announced.

Also, housing prices and rents in the country have excessively increased over the past year, more than any other country in Europe, according to Eurostat data.