Turkey's housing market has just had its busiest year on record. On January 20, 2026, TurkStat, the national statistics office, published its December figures, and they confirm that 1,688,910 homes changed hands across the country in 2025. That is 14.3% more than the 1,478,025 sold in 2024 and the highest annual total since the series began.
The year also finished strongly. December alone saw 254,777 sales, up 19.8% on December 2024, a typical pattern as buyers and developers complete deals before the year closes.
The clearest signal in the data is the return of borrowing. Mortgage sales, meaning purchases financed with a bank home loan, reached 236,668 in 2025, an increase of 49.3% on the year before. In December they rose 25.2%. Mortgages still account for a modest share of the market, around one sale in seven, which tells you most Turkish buyers still pay largely in cash. But the direction is notable after two years in which high interest rates kept many households away from home loans.
That shift follows a steady improvement in the wider economy. Annual consumer inflation fell to 30.9% in December 2025, according to TurkStat figures released on January 5, down from 44.4% a year earlier and from a peak of about 75% in May 2024. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, which sets the country's benchmark interest rate, cut that rate by 1.5 percentage points to 38% on December 11, 2025, continuing a gradual easing cycle. Lower inflation protects buying power, and lower rates make loans more affordable, and both tend to bring buyers back.
Demand was broad based. First hand sales, homes sold for the first time by developers, rose 11.6% to 540,786. Second hand sales, resales between owners, rose 15.6% to 1,148,124.
Istanbul remains the centre of gravity. The city recorded 280,262 sales in 2025, far ahead of Ankara, the capital, with 152,534 and Izmir on the Aegean coast with 96,998.
Foreign buyers bought 21,534 homes during the year, somewhat below 2024's total and about 1.3% of all sales. December was firmer, with 2,541 purchases, up 5.1% on the same month a year earlier. Foreign demand concentrates in a handful of places:
By nationality, Russian citizens bought the most homes in 2025 (3,649), followed by Iranians (1,878) and Ukrainians (1,541).
Part of Turkey's appeal to international buyers is that a home can lead directly to a passport. Under the exceptional citizenship rules, a foreigner who buys property worth at least US$400,000 and agrees not to sell it for three years can apply for Turkish citizenship. The threshold has been US$400,000 since June 13, 2022, when it was raised from US$250,000.
The rules are specific. The three year commitment is recorded as an annotation, an official note, on the title deed held by the land registry. The purchase money must be brought in as foreign currency and sold to a bank operating in Turkey, which issues a foreign currency purchase certificate as proof. The investment is measured in US dollars at the central bank's exchange rate. A spouse and children under 18 can be included in the same application, there is no requirement to live in Turkey, and Turkey allows dual citizenship.
For buyers at this level, the strength of the wider market matters. Deeper mortgage lending and record turnover mean more buyers and more liquidity when the three year holding period ends and an owner wants to sell or rent.
A busy market is also a reason to be thorough. A property used for citizenship needs a valuation report from a licensed valuation company, dated within three months of the application, and the price on the title deed needs to be consistent with it. The title history matters too: the rules exclude property previously owned by the applicant or their close family, and properties cannot simply be passed between foreign owners for citizenship purposes. Checking the deed record, debts and encumbrances on the property, and the valuation before paying anything is routine good practice. Our real estate due diligence service covers these checks in Turkey through our local team.
The 2025 figures describe a market that is large, liquid and recovering its access to credit as inflation falls. For anyone weighing Turkish citizenship through property, that is a supportive backdrop: you are buying into the country's busiest year for housing, in cities with genuine domestic and international demand. The sensible approach is to choose the property on its own merits as a home or an investment, verify it carefully, and treat the passport as one benefit of a sound purchase. We help clients apply for Turkish citizenship, work with our local team of lawyers and valuers, and quote our fixed fee in writing.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
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