Turkey’s Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Thursday that house sales in April saw a year-on-year fall of 18.1 percent, with the volume of the housing market dropping to 84,403.
As usual, the country’s largest city, İstanbul, had the major share of the market with 18.3 percent followed by the capital city of Ankara and the western port of İzmir.
Home sales backed by mortgages decreased 61.3 percent year-on-year, representing 12.8 percent of overall sales.
The number of first-time sales dropped 29.6 percent year-on-year and accounted for 39.6 percent of all sales.
Sales to foreigners increased 82.1 percent year-on-year despite the general downward trend, and went up to 3,720 units sold.
Iraqis were the largest group of foreign nationals purchasing houses in Turkey, followed by Saudis, Iranians, Kuwaitis and Russians. The construction sector is considered to be the main driving force behind the Turkish economy.
In order to counter its slowdown as well as to combat the turbulence in the value of the lira, the Turkish government recently introduced an incentive by which foreigners buying properties worth $250,000 are granted citizenship.