Page 9 - bne IntelliNews 26th May

bne Chart
May 26, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
Turkey’s home sales rise 7% in first 4 months
bne IntelliNews
Home sales in Turkey rose by 8% y/y to 114,446 units in April, following the 10% y/y growth registered in March, data from statistics office TUIK showed on May 24.
Six straight months of home sales growth was recorded in Turkey from August last year to January thanks to government efforts aimed at boosting construction demand to support the slowing economy. And it seems the govern- ment’s attempts to boost construction demand have also supported home sales growth dur- ing the first third of this year, though in Febru- ary there was a slight break in the trend with growth edging down 0.2% y/y.
During the January-April period, home sales grew 7% y/y to 440,226 units. Property sales to
foreigners were down 5% y/y to 5,894 units.
In January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Er- dogan offered the chance of Turkish citizenship to certain foreign real estate investors through an executive order. The government has high hopes that $1.9bn worth of real estate sales to foreigners can be achieved this year. However, security conditions in Turkey are suppressing foreign investors’ demand for real estate.
Ministers are also trying to stimulate domes- tic demand for real estate with a number of measures. Government officials, including Erdogan, have, for instance, been calling on Turkey's banks to cut interest rates on home loans, while VAT levied on home sales has been reduced.