KONUTDER Chairman Ziya Yılmaz commented on the housing-sales statistics for June 2025 released today by TURKSTAT.
Best first half in the past five years
Nationwide, 107,723 homes changed hands in June 2025—up 35.8 percent year-on-year. First-hand (new-build) sales totaled 33,569, a 32 percent increase, giving new homes a 31.2 percent share of all transactions.
With 691,893 units sold in the first six months of 2025, overall sales show the biggest rise in five years. If inflation keeps falling and interest rates decline, total sales—which reached 1.478 million in 2024—could top 1.5 million this year.
Although sales have picked up, the proportions of first-hand and mortgage-backed transactions must increase. From 2016 to 2020 new homes averaged a 45 percent share in the first half-year; over the past five years that figure has slipped to 30 percent. Likewise, mortgage sales averaged 31 percent in the first halves of 2016-2020, but have since dropped to about 17 percent.
Lift restrictions on housing finance
Unless we improve supply and credit availability, controlling home and rental prices will remain difficult. In this respect we welcome Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek’s recent remarks: “Without closing the supply gap, prices will not reach the desired level. Long-term financing must be available so low-income groups can buy homes.” KONUTDER believes that removing the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency’s (BDDK) credit constraints would quickly boost both mortgage and new-home sales.
Developing affordable land—the key to lower costs
Beyond sales, measures to cut land costs and raise supply must be introduced swiftly. The “affordable land” model we presented recently would help greatly. Turkey is one of the costliest countries for land: here, land averages about 50 percent of construction costs, whereas even in the most valuable locations in Europe and the United States it is around 20 percent. That directly undermines affordability, especially in major cities such as Istanbul.
In high-need areas the public sector could provide land so that its share of total development cost does not exceed 10–20 percent, depending on location. That would enable broad segments of society to become homeowners, ease access to housing, and support the fight against inflation.