Homes sales in Turkey declined by 5% y/y to 95,953 units in February, after rising by 1.7% y/y to 97,019 units in January, national statistics office TUIK reported on March 21.
Mortgage sales fell by a sharper 28% y/y to 27,916 units in the month, following the 20% y/y decrease seen in the first month of 2018.
TUIK also reported that property sales to foreigners increased by 32% y/y to 1,729 units in February. That came on top of the 26% y/y rise in January.
Consequently, home sales declined by 2% y/y to 192,792 units in January-February while mortgage sales fell by 24% y/y to 56,594 units. Home sales to foreigners rose by 29% y/y to 3,471 units in the first two months of the year.
Homes sales rose by 5% y/y to 1.41mn units in 2017, marking a new all-time high, following the 4% y/y gain in 2016 to 1.34mn units.
Construction confidence decreased by 3.7% m/m in February after rising 6.7% m/m in January.