The total construction area covered by new building permits throughout Turkey in the first half of 2016 was 14% higher than in the corresponding period of 2015.

Residential sales decreased by 3% and 8% in Turkey and Istanbul respectively in 2016 compared to the same period of the previous year.

Statistics published by TUIK indicate that in the first seven months of 2016, houses sold through mortgage constitute 32% of all house sales in Turkey, whereas the same number is 36% in Istanbul.

The amount of mortgage loans outstanding as of July 2016 was approximately $50,800 million USD. This represents roughly 9% of total loans for the country.

As of July 2016, Turkish Lira denominated interest rates on home loans have been around 1% on average per month while the growth rate in the volume of loans released increased by approximately 3% in the  rst half of 2016.

However, as of August 2016, in response to the government’s call to lower the annual interest rates below 10%, banks started to lower the rates. Hence as of August 2016, average per month interest rates on home loans are cut to 0.95%.

In addition, developers started to provide their own price reductions and campaigns in order to revive the market.

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