ANKARA
Housing sales in Turkey surged further nationwide in November after a sharp increase in October, the Turkish Statistical Institute revealed Tuesday.
The sales increased by 1.1 percent on a year-on-year basis during November.
According to the institute’s house sale statistics, 103,783 houses changed hands in Turkey in November.
Of those, 1,687 were sold to foreigners, including 652 houses in the holiday resort province of Antalya, 500 houses in Istanbul and 103 houses in the northwestern province of Yalova.
The statistics demonstrate that foreign investors were eager to buy properties in Turkey and rent them out because of Turkey's swelling tourist numbers.
In overall sales, Istanbul maintained its top spot with almost 19 percent of house sales. The capital Ankara and the western province of Izmir followed with 11.3 and 6.4 percent shares respectively.
However, the high interest rate is expected to negatively affect the ability of mortgage borrowers to take new loans. Currently, the mortgage rate is between monthly 0.85 and 1.25 percent. Homes sold with mortgages accounted for 35.6 percent of those sold, 39,925, in Turkey in November.
Meanwhile, house sales increased by 25.3 percent reaching 95,645 in October 2014 compared to the same month of the previous year.
Figures show that home sales have been rising over the years in Turkey, as the number of houses sold increased from 701,621 in 2012 to 1,157,190 in 2013, when 12,181 houses were sold to foreigners. Almost 40 percent of houses in 2013 were bought using a home loan.
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