House sales in Türkiye continued a downward trend in June and also declined in the first half of the year when compared to the same period the year earlier, official data showed on Wednesday as high interest rates and inflation weighed over the market.

Home sales declined 3.7% on an annual basis in the January-June period to 545,074 units, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

In June alone, the number of houses sold in Türkiye was at 79,313, decreasing by 5.2% year-over-year, TurkStat stated.

The decrease is attributed to tightening conditions, an increase in mortgage loan interest rates and the slowing pace of sales to foreigners, which also dropped in June, the data showed.

Istanbul took the lion's share in total house sales in June with 13,025 units, the capital Ankara followed it with 6,866 and the Aegean city Izmir with 4,361.

Mortgaged house sales decreased by 49.4% in June compared to the same month last year to 6,813 units, and mortgaged house sales had an 8.6% share of all house sales.

In the January-June period, mortgaged house sales decreased by 57.7% to 51,415 units, according to TurkStat.

To fight high inflation in the country, the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) hiked interest rates from 8.5% to 50% from last June through March causing strong declines in bank loans.

The data on Wednesday showed that 1,440 houses were sold to foreigners in June, down 45.1% on a yearly basis.

During the month the provinces with the highest number of house sales to foreigners were the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya with 593 units, Istanbul with 478 and another Mediterranean city, Mersin with 116.

In June, the most house sales according to nationality were made to citizens of Russia with 332, Iran with 156, and Ukraine with 102, TurkStat said.

In the January-June period, house sales to foreigners decreased by 45.7% compared to the same period a year earlier to 10,461 units, according to the data.