According to the report of the Real Estate and Real Estate Investment Partnership Association (GYODER), 483 thousand 256 housing sales in the last quarter of last year were the highest sales since 2013.
GYODER published the “GYODER Indicator Turkey Real Estate Sector 2019 4th Quarter Report”, which examines the sub-segments of the real estate sector on a quarterly basis.
According to the report, the 4th quarter of last year was the period with the highest quarterly sales since 2013, when the data was published, with a total of 483 thousand 256 housing sales. In particular, the number of housing sales in December exceeded all expectations by reaching 202 thousand 74 units. The performance of 2019 was particularly positively affected by the mortgage loan interest rate cuts that followed in August and closed the year with a contraction of approximately 2 percent compared to the previous year. The contraction in the first 7 months of the year was approximately 21 percent.
The share of second-hand sales increased to 63 percent
According to the report, one of the most important issues that differentiated last year was the share of second-hand sales in total sales. The overall rate, which ended with the same rate of 53 percent in the last three years before this year, increased to 63 percent this year. 30 percent of the sales made in the last quarter were mortgage sales.
Housing sales decreased by 1.9 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year, reaching 1 million 348 thousand 729. In December 2019, it increased by 47.7 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 202 thousand 74. Houses sold for the first time in December 2019 increased by 8 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 75 thousand 480. Second-hand house sales increased by 89 percent in December 2019 compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 126 thousand 594.
While the stock meltdown rate was 4.34 percent in the last quarter of last year, 6.51 percent of sales in branded housing projects were made to foreign investors. As of the end of the 4th quarter of 2019, housing sales to foreigners increased by 14.7 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 45 thousand 483 units. Considering the provinces where sales were made, Istanbul had the highest share in housing units with a share of 46 percent, and Antalya ranked second with a rate of 20 percent.
When looked at by nationality, Iraqi citizens came first with a share of 17 percent, Iranian citizens came second with a share of 12 percent, while Russian citizens came third.
Housing loan volume reached 199.1 billion lira
At the end of last year, the total housing loan volume was around 199 billion 145 million liras. At the end of the 4th quarter of 2019, the city with the most housing loans among total housing loans was Istanbul with 29.2 percent. Istanbul was followed by Ankara with 11.7 percent and Izmir with 7.7 percent.
While the general supply in the Istanbul office market remained at the same level at 6.46 million square meters, although the office supply increased by 276 thousand square meters in total in 2019, there was a 36.5 percent decrease in new supply entry compared to the previous year. While the total rental transactions in 2019 were recorded as 278 thousand 828 square meters, almost at the same level compared to the previous year, rental transactions in the 4th quarter were at a similar level compared to the same period of the previous year, with approximately 65 thousand 79 square meters. However, there was a 20.4 percent decrease compared to the previous quarter.
In the report, it was noted that the most important development in investment activities in the office market in 2019 was the Turkish Wealth Fund’s entry into the Istanbul Financial Center project as an investor with 1.67 billion lira.
REITs have an important position
REIT index performance, which was 30 thousand 390 at the end of the third quarter last year, closed 2019 with an increase of 33 percent, reaching 40 thousand 481. Therefore, REITs provided significant returns to their investors in a short term of 3 months.
The total number of shopping malls across Turkey reached 454, and the total leasable area stock reached 13 million 508 thousand square meters. The provinces with the most shopping centers were Istanbul (147), Ankara (39), Izmir (28), respectively, and Istanbul had approximately 39 percent of the total leasable area stock.
Throughout Turkey, the average leasable area per thousand people was 162 square meters.
When December 2019 data was compared to the same month of the previous year, it was observed that there was a 3.8 percent decrease in the number of visits index, and in the 4th quarter, there was a 1 percent decrease compared to the same period of the previous year.
Logistics supply for commercial use amounted to 6.46 million square meters
In the report, it was emphasized that in the Istanbul-Kocaeli region, which is the primary logistics market, there is a total warehouse stock of approximately 10.23 million square meters, and 6.46 million square meters of logistics supply for commercial use. While there was a vacancy of 12.1 percent as of the end of 2019, the volume of projects under construction was recorded as approximately 712 thousand square meters, and almost all of these projects were logistics supply for commercial use.
The rental transaction volume in Istanbul and Kocaeli provinces decreased by 53.8 percent at the end of the last quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 112 thousand 400 square meters. It was observed that 87.9 percent of the total logistics stock was used in the same provinces during the said period. In the same period last year, this rate was 88.1 percent.
