House sales in Türkiye fell 20.6% year-over-year in November to 93,514 units, official data showed on Friday, weakening for a fourth consecutive month.
The fall came amid a sharp rise in borrowing costs after six successive months of interest rate hikes by the central bank aimed at cooling demand and reining in inflation, which runs at nearly 62% and is expected to peak by May next year before dipping.
The aggressive tightening that took the central bank’s key policy rate to 40% from 8.5% came after the new economy administration orchestrated a shift from a yearslong policy of low borrowing costs after the May elections.
In the first 11 months of the year as a whole, house sales dropped 14.9% from a year earlier to nearly 1.1 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) figures showed.
In November, sales to foreigners declined 61.5% from a year earlier to 2,342 houses, with 637 sold to Russian citizens, still reflecting how many have sought a financial haven in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions.
Sales were down 46.1% in the 11-month period of the year.
The data showed November mortgaged sales fell 68.5% from a year earlier to 5,245 houses, accounting for 5.6% of total sales. The figure dropped 33.6% in the first 11 months.
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