Housing sales in Türkiye witnessed a significant decline in April, experiencing a 35.6% drop compared to the same month the previous year, according to the official data.

The total number of housing sales for April stood at 85,652, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

The statistics reveal that the downward trend persisted in the January-April period as well, with housing sales decreasing by 18.6% when compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

The cumulative figure for housing sales in January through April amounted to 368,867.

In April, Istanbul emerged as the leader in house sales, accounting for the highest share with 13,944 houses sold, representing 16.3% of the total.

Following Istanbul, Ankara recorded 10,000 house sales, making up 11.7% of the overall market share. Western Izmir secured the third position with 4,960 house sales, capturing a 5.8% share.

Conversely, the provinces with the lowest number of house sales were eastern Ardahan and Hakkari, each with 22 houses sold, while Bayburt recorded 53 houses sold.

Sales to foreigners

In April, a total of 2,557 houses out of 85,652 sold in Türkiye were purchased by foreigners.

However, housing sales to foreigners experienced a significant decline of 60.3% compared to the previous year. Foreigners accounted for 3% of the total house sales in April.

Among the provinces, the Mediterranean province of Antalya ranked first in housing sales to foreigners, with 1,024 houses sold in April. Istanbul secured the second position with 792 sales, followed by southern Mersin province with 186 sales.

Throughout the January-April period, housing sales to foreigners decreased by 35.1%, totaling 13,483 houses, compared to the same period in the previous year.

In April, Russian citizens accounted for the highest number of purchases with 817 houses bought from Türkiye. They were followed by citizens from Iran with 377 houses, Ukraine with 136 houses and Iraq with 124 houses.

Mortgage sales down

In terms of mortgaged house sales, Türkiye experienced a notable decline of 32% in April compared to the same month in the previous year, resulting in a total of 21,769 houses sold through mortgage transactions. Mortgage sales accounted for 25.4% of the overall housing market.

For the January-April period, mortgage sales also saw a decrease of 19.7%, totaling 80,591 houses sold compared to the same period in the previous year.

Out of the mortgaged sales in April, 7,388 were firsthand sales, while for the January-April period, 25,552 were firsthand sales.

The number of non-mortgaged house sales in April also saw a decline of 36.8% compared to the previous year, with a total of 63,883. Non-mortgaged sales represented 74.6% of the total house sales.

Similarly, non-mortgaged sales during the January-April period decreased by 18.3% compared to the previous year, amounting to 288,276.

In April, the number of houses sold for the first time in Türkiye decreased by 26% compared to the previous year, totaling 26,952. First-time sales accounted for 31.5% of the total house sales. For the January-April period, firsthand house sales were recorded as 110,859, reflecting a decrease of 15.3% compared to the previous year.

Secondhand house sales in Türkiye also experienced a decline of 39.3% in April compared to the previous year, with a total of 58,700.

Secondhand sales represented 68.5% of the overall house sales. In the January-April period, secondhand house sales decreased by 19.9% compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 258,008.