Turkey monthly house sales down 8.2 pct; Russians top foreign buyers again

Turkish home sales fell 8.2 percent year-on-year in December to 207,963 houses, with sales to foreigners dropping 18.6 percent, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed on Tuesday.

Russians topped the list of foreigners with 2,403 houses purchased in December, reflecting how many have sought a financial haven in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the fallout from Western sanctions.

House sales dropped 0.4 percent in 2022 as a whole compared to the previous year, while sales to foreigners rose 15.2 percent, data showed.

Russians also topped the list of foreign buyers in 2022 with 16,312 houses, followed by Iranians with 8,223 houses and Iraqis with 6,241.

The data also showed mortgaged sales declined 51.8 percent in December from a year earlier, and 4.8 percent in 2022 as a whole, making up 18.9 percent of all sales in the year.