According to TÜİK, 127 thousand 410 homes were sold in August, marking an annual decline of 14.7%. First-hand sales fell by 4.5% to 44 thousand 378, while second-hand sales declined by 19.4% to 83 thousand 32. Mortgaged sales rose by 7.2% to 22 thousand 131, while other sales fell by 18.3% to 105 thousand 279.
In January-August, total sales decreased by 6.8% to 950 thousand 529. First-hand sales fell by 1.4% to 308 thousand 394, second-hand sales by 9.2% to 642 thousand 135, mortgaged sales increased by 27.6% to 188 thousand 813, and other sales declined by 12.7% to 761 thousand 716.
In data adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, first-hand sales rose by 3.5% and second-hand sales by 0.7%. Sales to foreigners increased by 0.1% to 1,938 in August, accounting for a 1.5% share. In January-August, they declined by 6.3% to 13 thousand 141. In August, citizens of the Russian Federation purchased 343 homes, Ukrainian citizens 147, and Iranian citizens 140.
Why it matters
The data show that the contraction in the housing market was not reflected equally across sales types: mortgaged transactions increased, while other sales declined. Within this divergence, the sharper decline in the second-hand market stands out as the main factor dragging down total sales. By contrast, the monthly increases in seasonally and calendar-adjusted first-hand and second-hand sales indicate that the annual decline alone does not explain the short-term movement in August. Although sales to foreigners remained almost flat in August, their decline in the first eight months of the year and their limited share of the total show that the overall change was driven mainly by domestic transactions. The fact that the increase in mortgaged sales was unable to offset the decline in the overall market leaves open the question of why demand outside financed transactions weakened.
Background
Turkey is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we published 56 news stories mentioning it, the latest dated September 17, 2026.