High home prices lead to boom in demand for land and fields

The desire for a more detached life after the pandemic has led to an increase in the number of rural and field sales. As the remote working model became permanent in many sectors, demand has gradually increased.

Those who had shelved their dream of buying a house after the record increase in house prices have turned to buying land. The ability to invest with a smaller budget enabled a large segment of the population to turn to this area.

Looking at the first six months of the year, the number of home sales across the country decreased by 22.1 percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to 565,779. According to Istanbul Real Estate Appraisal (IGD) data, the sales of non-residential real estate, which consists of offices, shops, land and fields, approached 800,000, and these sales are predicted to be mainly land and fields.

"The pandemic period has increased interest in detached living and accelerated the spread of remote working practices," said Ahmet Büyükduman, managing partner of IGD.

"While in some industries employees who are freed from physical ties to the workplace have begun to migrate to regions where the cost of living is lower, investors who expect this trend to continue in the future appear to have turned to rural land investments," he added.

"In addition to this interest in the countryside, the motivation to preserve the value of their savings in a high inflation environment is also increasing interest in real estate in general, while rapidly rising housing prices are becoming unaffordable for certain segments of the population, causing smaller savings to turn to land investments. Despite the decline in residential property sales in the first half of the year, non-residential property sales remained at...