Home purchases financed with mortgage loans continued to grow in Türkiye in August 2026, while the broader housing market contracted, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) figures released on Sept. 17.
Mortgaged sales reached 22,131 units in August, a 7.2% increase compared with the same month a year earlier. They accounted for 17.4% of all home sales during the month. Over the first eight months of the year, mortgaged sales totaled 188,813, up 27.6% from January–August 2025.
The picture was different for cash and other non-mortgaged transactions, which make up the bulk of the market. These sales fell 18.3% year-on-year to 105,279 units in August and were down 12.7% in the year to date.
New homes hold up better than resales
Sales of newly built homes, or first-hand sales, came to 44,378 in August, down 4.5% from a year earlier and representing 34.8% of the total. Second-hand sales fell more steeply, by 19.4%, to 83,032 units.
Total sales of 127,410 homes were 14.7% lower than in August 2025, although they rose 3.1% compared with July. Cumulative sales for January–August stood at 950,529, down 6.8%. Sales of commercial premises, which TurkStat reports separately, fell 6.4% to 15,937.
A modest recovery signal
Mortgage activity has been one of the few areas of growth in the housing market this year, but momentum slowed in August. According to an assessment by brokerage İş Yatırım, the annual growth rate of mortgaged sales eased to 7.2% from much higher levels earlier in the year, and mortgaged sales fell 7.4% compared with July.
The brokerage noted that the year-on-year decline in total sales in August was considerably deeper than the eight-month average, and concluded that it was still too early to speak of a broad-based recovery in housing demand.
Borrowing costs remain a key factor. Average housing loan rates were close to 42% in September, according to weekly market data cited in Turkish media, with the central bank holding its policy rate at 37% during the month. Lending is also shaped by loan-to-value rules introduced by the banking regulator in early 2026, which link the share of a home's value that can be financed to its price and energy efficiency.
Sources
- Konut satışları yüzde 14,7 azaldı: İpotekli satışlar yüzde 7,2 arttı
- Türkiye'de Ağustos Konut Satışları Verileri Değerlendirmesi (İş Yatırım)
Photo: Kayhan ERTUGRUL / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
