Iranians set a record in buying houses in Türkiye

The Turkish Statistical Institute said in its latest report that Iranians purchased about 7,189 houses in Turkey in 2020, an increase of about 25% compared to 2019 and a 10-fold increase compared to the pre-sanctions era.

Despite the fact that the borders between Iran and Türkiye were closed last year, Iranian citizens have greatly increased their purchases of homes in this country.

Citizens from more than 100 countries purchased a total of 41,298 homes in Türkiye last year, almost a fifth of whom were Iranians.

The latest report by the Turkish Statistical Institute, published on Thursday, January 14, shows that Iranians have become the first foreigners to buy homes in the country.

The surge in Iranian home purchases in Turkey has many factors. The most important reason is obtaining Turkish citizenship, because in the middle of last year, the Turkish government announced that since 2017, nearly seven thousand foreigners from more than a hundred countries have succeeded in obtaining citizenship due to purchasing housing in Turkey, with Iranians leading the way. During this period, 1,475 Iranians, 842 Iraqis, and 812 Afghans received Turkish citizenship due to purchasing housing.

Another reason for the surge in Iranian home purchases in Turkey could be attributed to the depreciation of the lira and contained housing inflation. One US dollar was worth less than four liras at the beginning of 2018, but it rose to 5.3 liras at the beginning of 2020 and is currently trading at 7.4 liras.

The acceleration of housing sector inflation in Türkiye over the past two years was very small compared to the growth of the exchange rate.

On the other hand, despite the depreciation of the lira and lower inflation in the housing sector, the buying and selling of real estate in Türkiye has not slowed down, even despite the spread of the coronavirus.

For example, a report by the Turkish Statistical Institute shows that 1.5 million homes were bought and sold in Turkey last year, which not only did not decrease compared to previous years, but also increased by more than 15 percent.

Thus, the Turkish housing market has not been in recession, despite the decline in the value of the lira and the spread of the coronavirus.

This is while housing transactions in Iran have fluctuated significantly during the first nine months of this solar year compared to the same period last year and 2018.

Statistics from the Central Bank of Iran show that the number of housing transactions in Tehran in the first nine months of 2019 was about 70,000 units, a 43 percent increase compared to the same period last year, but almost halved compared to the same period in 2018.

Also, the average housing price per square meter in Tehran during December 2019 was about 13.5 million Tomans, but in December this year it peaked at 27 million Tomans, which has doubled.

Such growth in housing prices, coupled with severe fluctuations in the number of transactions, makes the Iranian housing market an unattractive area for investment.

Turkish housing market for foreigners

Since September 2018, Turkey has eased the conditions for granting citizenship based on investment in the country's real estate market, and an investment of $250,000 has been considered for obtaining citizenship, which was four times less than before.

Detailed annual statistics also show that since this date, the rate of growth in home purchases by foreigners, especially Iranians who were also faced with the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, has grown significantly.

Of course, granting Turkish citizenship is not the only reason for the surge in housing sales to foreigners. Among the major foreign buyers of housing in Turkey are citizens of Germany, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, and the main customers of the Turkish housing market are not only Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Turkish statistics show that in 2017, a little over 22,000 homes were sold to foreigners, but in 2018 this figure rose to 40,000 and in 2019 to 46,000 units.

But last year, due to the coronavirus outbreak, total housing sales to foreigners dropped to 41,000 units, of which about 17% were purchased by Iranians, 16% by Iraqis, and 7.4% by Russians.

Citizens from Germany, Kuwait, Yemen, Britain, Jordan, and Kazakhstan have also purchased more than a thousand housing units each in Türkiye.

Highest housing sales among cities

The Turkish Statistical Institute report shows that almost half of the homes sold to foreigners were in Istanbul, the economic heart of Turkey, which accounts for almost a third of Turkey's GDP.

Also, almost a fifth of the homes sold to foreigners were in the tourist and coastal city of Antalya, which welcomes more than 15 million foreign tourists annually.

Ankara, the country's capital, also had a share of less than 7% in attracting foreign capital for housing purchases.

Before 2017, Iranians bought an average of 600 to 700 houses from Turkey annually, but in 2018 this figure rose to 3,652 units, in 2019 to 5,423 units, and last year to 7,189 units.

Iranians are the only foreign citizens whose housing purchases in Turkey increased last year compared to 2019; this is despite the fact that the borders between the two countries have been closed for almost a year due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Official Turkish statistics do not specify exactly how many houses Iranian citizens have purchased in which cities and what the value of these houses was.

Turkey plans to increase housing sales to foreigners to 50,000 to 60,000 units this year, and consequently, attract $10 billion in foreign investment in this market.

Source: DW