In January 2023, Turkish real estate purchases by Russians showed a notable downturn, dropping 35.2 percent from December 2022. The decline is linked to a data-driven study conducted by Garnet and reported by Lenta.ru, highlighting how market activity slowed at the start of the year.
Across the first month of 2023, Russians acquired 1,557 properties in Turkey. This January figure stands as the lowest monthly total since September 2022, signaling a cooling in demand after a strong prior period.
Looking back to November 2022, contracts with Russian buyers had already begun a downward trend for two consecutive months. In December 2022, monthly transaction activity decreased by about 6.7 percent, continuing the pattern of softer demand observed toward the year’s end.
In the latter half of February, Lenta.ru, citing Garnet’s data, noted a 90 percent year-over-year surge in interest from Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region for Turkish real estate during 2022. This striking uptick occurred despite the overall January dip, suggesting a complex demand picture influenced by shifting investment interests and regional economic factors.
At the end of February, Yunus Sezer, who leads disaster and emergency management in Turkey, reported that the number of earthquake victims rose to 44,374. This tragic development underscored the broader context in which real estate decisions were being weighed, including safety considerations and the long-term resilience of housing investments in earthquake-prone areas.
Overall, the data portrays a nuanced landscape for Russian real estate activity in Turkey during the early months of 2023. While monthly totals fluctuated, the underlying patterns reveal a persistent interest from Russian buyers, tempered by seasonal and macroeconomic variables. Analysts point to a duration of cautious optimism, with investors tracking local market conditions, currency movements, and the evolving risk environment tied to regional events. The Garnet-backed analyses cited by Lenta.ru serve as a key reference for understanding these shifts, offering a lens into how demand can diverge from headline monthly totals and how buyer sentiment adapts to both macro trends and regional developments. In this context, Turkish property markets continued to attract attention from buyers across Russia, but the pace of purchases remained sensitive to monthly volatility and broader geopolitical dynamics, a reality amplified by the ongoing need to assess property safety, insurance implications, and long-term value in a post-disaster scenario.