In a noteworthy downturn for the Turkish real estate market, home sales to foreign buyers have reached their lowest point in the past decade, according to data from the country’s central bank.
The bank’s Balance of Payments Statistics released on Tuesday showed that the Turkish real estate sector, which set a record with $6.273 billion in net foreign inflow in 2022, saw a significant downturn in 2023, plummeting by 43.3 percent to $3.560 billion, marking the lowest point in a decade.
Real estate purchases constituted 76.1 percent of total net foreign direct investment, which amounted to $4.678 billion in 2023.
The Sözcü daily reported on Tuesday, citing data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), that home sales to foreigners saw a significant decline of 48.1 percent in 2023, compared to a year earlier, reaching a total of 35,005 units. This figure marked the lowest point in the six years following 2017.
The share of home sales to foreigners within total housing sales, which was 4.5 percent in 2022, declined to 2.9 percent in 2023.
Experts attribute the decrease in foreign real estate purchases in Turkey to factors such as the substantial rise in prices in dollars, earthquake risks and increased requirements for obtaining citizenship.
Changes to regulation in April 2022 require foreigners to pay at least $400,000 for a piece of real estate, instead of $250,000, to be eligible for citizenship on the condition of holding the property for three years.
Meanwhile, the central bank data also showed that Turkish citizens’ foreign real estate investments set a record with $2.086 billion in 2023, marking a remarkable increase of 163.7 percent compared to the previous year.
The figure was $282 million in 2020, $526 million in 2021 and $791 million in 2022.