Why Turkey Is Now Europe’s Biggest Home Seller — And What That Means for Buyers

Turkey’s housing boom: record sales meet runaway prices

Türkiye has been selling more homes than any other European country, and for buyers and investors watching the real estate Turkey market that is both impressive and worrying. Demand remains high: official figures place Türkiye among the top two OECD markets for annual transactions, yet prices have risen at rates that far outpace incomes and rents. Our analysis teases out what those numbers actually mean for people looking to buy, rent out or invest in Turkish property.

A fast hook: what the headline numbers say

• Türkiye ranks second among OECD countries for annual home sales, after the United States. The U.S. recorded 4.06 million transactions; Türkiye is near 1.48 million units sold in the comparative dataset.
• In 2025, house sales in Türkiye rose 19.2% to 1.12 million units for January–September and reached an annualized 1.43 million.
• According to the Turkish central bank’s Residential Property Price Index (RPPI), house prices were up 32.2% year-on-year as of September 2025.

Those figures tell two simultaneous stories: an actively trading market, and a price surge that has made housing unusually expensive in nominal terms.

How Türkiye outpaced Europe on sales volumes

There are three practical reasons sales volumes in Turkey have stayed high while prices climbed.

1. Market size and demographic dynamics

• Large population and urbanization sustain ongoing housing demand. Cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir keep absorbing new households.

2. Investment behaviour

• Real estate remains a primary store of value for many Turks. Developers and trade bodies note that housing acts as a hedge against inflation.

3. Policy, interest-rate cycles and credit access

• Periods of lower policy rates and targeted lending windows supported sales spikes. Still, mortgage-based purchases have dropped, which shapes where demand is coming from.

The OECD comparison is stark. Türkiye outpaced all 44 European countries; the United Kingdom followed with 1.24 million transactions, while France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal recorded between 150,000 and 750,000 sales each. That makes Türkiye the largest housing market in Europe by transaction count, and second in the OECD overall.

Prices: eye-watering nominal growth, but signs of cooling in real terms

The most headline-grabbing statistic is the long-term nominal jump in Turkish housing prices. OECD data show that since 2015, Türkiye has experienced the fastest nominal housing price growth among member states: +1,621.5% as of 2024. Rents climbed by 779.8% over the same period, which also tops the OECD.

Yet those numbers must be read alongside inflation. The RPPI showed 32.2% year-on-year house-price growth as of September 2025, but when adjusted for general price inflation the index fell 0.8% in real terms. That indicates a possible cooling when measured against the overall price level.

What this means in practice:

• Nominal gains have been enormous, so owners who bought earlier recorded high paper returns. Those gains erode once inflation is factored in.
• For buyers using local-currency mortgages or saving in lira, real affordability has been under pressure because incomes and borrowing costs are volatile.
• International investors face a mix of high nominal prices and weak real appreciation in recent months, so timing and currency exposure matter.

Real housing-price growth since 2015 places Türkiye third among OECD nations with a 75% increase in real terms, behind Portugal (80%) and Hungary (79.6%). That ranking shows that even after accounting for inflation, housing values rose meaningfully over the decade.

Rentals, yields and what landlords should calculate

Rents have not lagged. OECD figures put rental price growth at 779.8% since 2015, which is extraordinary. But large rent increases don't automatically translate into attractive investor yields.

Key points for buy-to-let investors:

• Assess gross rental yield not just rent growth. If property prices soared faster than rents in recent years, yields compress even as nominal rent receipts increase.
• Consider holding period inflation. Real rental income depends on whether rents keep pace with inflation and maintenance costs.
• Factor in tax, management fees and potential vacancy periods. Rapid market turnover can mean frequent tenant changeovers in urban centres.

For short-term tourists or furnished lettings, some districts in Istanbul and coastal tourism hubs remain attractive, but regulatory and licensing requirements can shift quickly. For long-term rentals, neighbourhood fundamentals, tenant demand and transport links will determine occupancy and yield stability.

Supply dynamics: second-hand market dominates while new build lags

The structure of transactions matters for future price trends.

• Second-hand sales grew 21.6% in January–September 2025 versus the previous year, totaling 786,086 units and accounting for 68.7% of all house sales.
• Newly constructed housing units stood at an annualized 638,180 as of June based on occupancy permit data.
• The share of mortgage-financed sales decreased to 14.1% in September 2025.

Those figures show a market where resales dominate and mortgage penetration is relatively low compared with some OECD peers. When a large portion of transactions are cash or equity-based, price formation is less sensitive to interest-rate shifts and more driven by liquidity and investor sentiment.

Developers and industry associations have been vocal. GYODER chair Nesecan Cekici stressed that the housing sector retains a central role as an investment tool and called for long-term strategies to keep housing accessible and sustainable. KONUTDER chair Ziya Yilmaz warned that lower financing costs and easier credit could revive mortgage-driven demand and flagged high land costs as a central barrier to new supply. He estimated that public-sector provision of land under favorable terms could increase housing accessibility by around 40%.

Those are concrete claims with practical policy implications: improving access to land and credit could shift the balance toward more new-builds and mortgage purchases.

Financing and mortgage market: a turning point

Mortgage activity has shrunk to 14.1% of transactions, down from higher levels in prior cycles. For buyers this matters in two ways:

• If you plan to use a mortgage, expect stricter underwriting, higher rates at points in the cycle, and that many sellers price for cash buyers.
• Developers call for easier financing to stimulate first-hand sales, but easier credit raises macro risks if inflation is not contained.

From an investor's standpoint, the low mortgage share means less leveraged buyer participation.