Home sales in Turkey jump due to cheaper loans

Sales of new homes in April hit their fastest pace in four months, the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) said in a statement yesterday. Consumers are taking advantage of loans with lower interest rates with mortgages for house sales in April rising to 46,063, an increase of 96.5 percent compared with 23,447 in the same month of the previous year, the statement said.

The interest rates on home loans were less costly after key rate cuts were made by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey starting from May of last year.

The lowest rate on a 10-year mortgage dropped to 0.92 percent in April this year from 1.07 percent in April of last year, creating an advantage worth TL 16,000 ($6,200) for a TL 100,000 loan.

Purchases of new homes rose 40 percent to 52,598 in April compared with the same month of last year,

Existing-home sales increased 45 percent last month year-on-year to 66,719.

In April, 119,317 houses changed hands in Turkey, an increase of 43 percent compared with the same month of the previous year. House sales to foreigners were 1,847, a 19 percent increase compared with 1,554 in April 2014.

"The figures for April 2015 show that the market grew by 2.8 percent overall since March 2015, with a monthly increase in transactions by foreign buyers of 14.7 percent," Julian Walker, director at the London-based Spot Blue International Property told Anadolu Agency.

"These figures show that foreign buyers account for every 1.5 transactions every 100 sales, with the importance of these foreign transactions growing significantly over the last month."

During the first four months of 2015, home sales in Turkey increased by 22 percent to 416,565, and new homes accounted for 44 percent of all sales in the country. Foreigners bought 6,115 houses in Turkey between January and April 2015, an increase of 18 percent compared with 5,194 in the same period of last year.