Turkish Home Sales Fell 17% in July While Mortgage-Backed Purchases Jumped 24%
TUIK data for July 2026 shows 123,603 homes sold in Turkey, down 17% year on year, even as mortgaged sales rose 23.7% and foreign buying edged up 1.9%.
Turkey recorded 123,603 residential sales in July 2026, a 17.0% fall against July 2025, according to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) on 13 August. Inside that decline sits the more interesting number: mortgaged sales rose 23.7% to 23,888 units and now account for 19.3% of all transactions, the clearest sign yet that the cash-only character of the post-inflation Turkish market is starting to erode.
The second-hand market took almost all of the damage
Sales of existing homes fell 20.8% to 81,074 units. New-build sales dropped far less, down 8.6% to 42,529. That leaves the split at 65.6% second-hand and 34.4% first-hand. Developers with completed stock and the ability to offer instalment terms have held up better than private sellers, who compete directly with the mortgage market on price and cannot match a builder's payment plan.
Over the first seven months of the year the pattern is milder but the same shape: 823,119 homes sold, down 5.5%, with first-hand sales essentially flat at 264,016 (-0.8%) and second-hand sales down 7.5% to 559,103. Cumulative mortgaged sales reached 166,682, up 30.9%.
Foreign demand is flat, and small
Foreigners bought 2,120 homes in July, up 1.9% on the year but still only 1.7% of the national total. Russian citizens led with 394 purchases, followed by Iranians on 189 and Ukrainians on 145. Across January to July, foreign purchases were 11,203 units, down 7.3% — a reminder that the wave of 2022-23 relocation buying has not returned, and that Turkey's citizenship-by-investment channel is no longer the volume driver it once was.
The lira is doing most of the work in the headline price figures
This is where Turkish market data is easiest to misread. Glopra's snapshot of 23 July 2026 puts the Turkish national average at $1,076 per square metre with a gross rental yield of 7.32%. Nominal prices are up 24.5% over twelve months in lira terms — but measured in US dollars the same movement is worth only 6.6%. Almost three-quarters of the apparent boom is currency, not value.
Istanbul shows the identical wedge on a higher base: $1,340 per square metre, a gross yield of 8.17%, and 25.3% nominal growth in lira collapsing to 7.3% in dollars. Antalya sits at $1,170 per square metre with a 6.14% gross yield.
What a foreign buyer should take from the July print
Our bubble risk score for Turkey is 60 out of 100, at the bottom edge of the elevated band, and 57 for Istanbul, which stays in moderate territory. Neither reading suggests a market priced for a fall; both suggest one where the nominal numbers flatter the return. With volumes down 17% and the mortgage channel reopening, the near-term question for Turkey is whether cheaper credit stabilises transactions before the second-hand discount widens far enough to show up in the price indices. Non-resident landlords face an effective rental tax of roughly 18.4% in our standardised case, which trims that 7.3% gross yield materially.
Sources: TUIK (Turkish Statistical Institute) https://data.tuik.gov.tr/; CNN Turk https://www.cnnturk.com/ekonomi/konut-satislari-temmuzda-geriledi-ipotekli-satislarda-artis-dikkat-cekti-3453978