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        state-owned lenders, provided. The rise in home sales and mortgage-financed home sales slowed to 124% y/y and 900% y/y in July, respectively.
“Monthly interest rates on housing loans were as low as 0.64% in July but rose to around 1.2% in September,” noted Makbule Maya at TSKB Real Estate Appraisal.
Home sales are very responsive to interest rates, she said, adding: “Sales rise significantly when the rates are below 1%, but mortgage-financed property sales plunge immediately when the rates go above this threshold.”
TUIK data also showed that housing sales to foreign buyers increased 5.1% in September on a yearly basis to 5,269 units.
With 2,370 units, Istanbul, the country’s largest city by population, enjoyed the lion’s share of sales to foreign buyers.
The Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya followed with 1,018 properties, while the capital Ankara came third with 347.
Iranians purchased 908 units across Turkey in September and made up the largest group of foreign buyers, followed by Iraqis with 826 purchases and Russians with 448.
In the first nine months of the year, house sales to foreigners totalled 26,165 properties, down 18% y/y.
Turkey’s residential property price index i​ncreased​by 26% y/y in August.​
  8.1.5​ Retail sector news
8.1.6​ TMT sector news 8.1.7 ​Tourism sector news
8.2 ​Major corporate news 8.2.1​ Oil & gas corporate news
   Turkish retailers operating in Turkey’s 450+ shopping malls are not yet out of the woods when it comes to their struggle with poor demand resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, a survey by a trading group ​showed.​
     Turkey’s internet r​emains​“Not free” according to US-based Freedom House’s "Freedom on the Net 2020: The Pandemic's Digital Shadow" report.
     Domestic tourism spending in Turkey ​plunged​67% y/y to Turkish lira (TRY) 3.6bn ($516mn) in Q2.
     Tupras r​evised​its sales volume expectation to 23mn tonnes from 25mn tonnes.​The capacity utilisation rate of the refiner is now seen at between 75% to 80% for 2020 versus the previous forecast of 80% to 85%.
Tupras’s production declined to 4.9mn tonnes in the second quarter of 2020 from 6mn tonnes in Q1. In the second quarter of 2019, the company’s output stood at 6.9mn tonnes.
 Its net sales revenues plunged 61% on an annual basis to Turkish lira (TRY)
 39​ TURKEY Country Report​ November 2020
​ ​www.intellinews.com
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