Sales of homes in Turkey fell sharply for the second consecutive month in May as the COVID-19 outbreak has cut consumer demand. Since the start of nationwide lock downs and travel bans on March 11, the AKP government tried to support the construction sector via low cost housing loans given the piling up unsold properties.
House sales dropped by an annual 44 percent to 50,936 units following the 56 percent drop in April to 42,783 units.
Sales of newly built homes slumped by an annual 55 percent in May to 16,860 units.
The announced cheap loans helped with the mortgage home sales. That is, purchases of homes via mortgage borrowing increased by an annual 24 percent to 18,483 units in May. Sales of homes through such loans, which made up 36 percent of total, had dropped by 24 percent to 17,808 units in April. The month-on-month increase in sales was a weak 3.8 percent though.
Given the travel bans across the world, sales of homes to foreigners slid by 78 percent to 860 units following the 79 percent slide to 790 units in April.
President Erdogan sees Turkey’s construction industry as the main driver of growth and thus why tries to support homes sales through lower interest rates.