Domestic demand declines in turkish property market

The Turkey-wide trend toward purchasing new homes decreased last year compared to 2009, according to ING Turkey's “mortgage barometer.”

According to ING Turkey research released Wednesday, the tendency among Turkish people to buy a house last year decreased 7 percent on an annual basis. Nearly 63 percent of respondents said they were not planning on purchasing a new house; the figure at the end of 2009 was 56 percent.

Likewise, the rate of Turkish people considering the purchase of a new house decreased from 38 to 33 percent in 2010. Experts, however, are hopeful about 2011, as they have interpreted signs of recovery in the year’s first two months.

“The amount of mortgage credit totals up to only 5 percent of gross domestic product as of 2010,” Cenk TabakoÄŸlu, deputy general manager of consumer banking at ING Turkey, told a press conference in Istanbul. “The ratio was only 4 percent in 2009,” he said, noting that the ratio of mortgage credit to GDP was over 90 percent in countries such as Britain, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News