September Sales Give Fresh Sign Of Housing Recovery

After sustaining losses for seven consecutive months in 2014, the recovery in home sales continued in September after picking up in August.

Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) data concerning nationwide developments in housing sales showed that the ownership of 115,726 houses changed hands in the ninth month of the year, marking a 13.2 percent increase over the same month of the previous year. This figure was a staggering 25 percent in August.

Despite the recovery in August and September, however, sales were still down 3.6 percent in the first three quarters compared to the same period a year ago. As of the end of July, the home sales in the first seven months of 2014 were 9.8 percent down from the number for the January-July period of 2013.

According to market assessments, there are many reasons for the sudden surge in sales. Consumers had been postponing their demand for new homes due to ambiguities stemming from political tensions centered around last year's corruption scandals and this year's presidential elections. As the country pulled through the elections and avoided the potential reverberations of political crises on the economy, they began satisfying their deferred demand for new homes, market experts assert.

Another reason for the hike in sales was promotions construction companies organized to boost their revenue in an attempt to recover their losses from the long-stagnant sales.

TurkStat figures show that housing sales totaled 862,000 in the first nine months of the previous year, but the same period of 2013 saw 831,000 sales.

In the above-mentioned period, mortgage sales were down 23.8 percent from 361,000 to 275,000, whereas sales through non-mortgage payment methods were up 11 percent to 556,000 over the same period a year ago. The poor numbers in mortgage sales were due to the rising costs of lending, as interest rates were up, and the more positive figures were indicative of sales promotion offers by construction companies.

In September, İstanbul had an 18.1 percent share in total sales with 20,923, and Ankara came in second with 12,615 sales, making a 10.9 percent share. İzmir was third with 6.1 percent. The list cited Hakkari, Ardahan and Şırnak as the three provinces with the lowest number of sales in the given month, with only 10, 12 and 45 home sales, respectively.

Turkey-wide sales of new homes were 13.4 percent up in September over the same month of 2013 at 53,000. Of the total number of houses sold in the ninth month, 45.8 percent were homes being sold for the first time. Second-hand sales also saw an increase of 13.1 percent in September, reaching 62,747.

As usual, Antalya was the primary choice for foreigners' home purchase demands. They bought 590 houses in this province in September. İstanbul was the second choice for foreigners, with 546 house sales, and Aydın was third with 144.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)