The momentum in the property market in Türkiye picked up pace in April as both house and commercial property sales increased in the month, official data showed on Thursday.
A total of 126,808 houses were sold in Türkiye in April, up 2.6% from a year earlier, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The figure compares with 123,569 housing sales recorded in the same month last year and cumulatively looking it is also the highest figure this year so far.
House sales, which are divided into new home sales and second-hand sales, were relatively lower in the first quarter following a record achieved in sales in December last year.
Accordingly, in April, new house sales surged by 9.6% compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 40,306 units, as per TurkStat.
Second-home sales, meanwhile, decreased by 0.3% over the same period to 86,502 units.
Thus, new house sales accounted for 31.8% while existing house sales accounted for 68.2% of total house sales.
Mortgage-financed home sales jumped 40.5% to 25,771, accounting for 20.3% of total transactions in the same month.
Meanwhile, sales to foreign buyers declined 1.1% to 1,516 units, with Russians, Chinese and Iranians among the top purchasers, data revealed. In January-April, house sales to foreigners decreased by 11.6% year-over-year to 5,681 units.
In the first four months of the year, total house sales stood at 476,204 units, up 0.5% year-on-year.
Commercial property sales, which TurkStat recently included in its monthly housing report, have also increased in April.
New commercial property sales rose by 14.3% on an annual basis, reaching 4,301 units, while second-hand ones were up 8.7% and stood at 11,393 units, respectively.
Turks tend to invest in the residential sector and gold to shield themselves from the surge in consumer prices.
Annual inflation in the country picked up slightly to around 32.4% in April after a long period of declining trend, mainly due to the rise in energy and food prices following the start of the war between the U.S., Israel and Iran.
