The 27 leading banks in Turkey were as of January offering 9,376 pieces of real estate for sale on their websites, data compiled by business daily Dunya showed on February 5.

Around half a year earlier, in July, about 25% of the pieces of real estate seized by the banks were commercial properties—that figure rose to 54% by last month, according to the newspaper.

Toplam: Total, Konut: Home, Isyeri: Workplace, Tarla: Agricultural field, Arsa: Land

Also as of January, there were 2,830 workplaces (30% of all real estate for sale) and 2,209 pieces of land or agricultural fields (24%) for sale on the websites.

Government-run Vakifbank (VAKBN) was the biggest owner of real estate with 2,197 properties, while another government-run lender, Ziraat Bank, which focuses on agri-finance, was the leading owner among the banks of land or agricultural fields, with 973 properties.

Halkbank (HALKB), the third bank of the government-owned trio, was offering 965 properties for sale while Isbank (ISCTR) was presenting 848 and Garanti (GARAN) 603.

Akbank (AKBNK) lagged behind with 163.

A yarn production plant in Kutahya province along with a brick plant in Kastamonu, a wedding hall in Antalya and an unfinished business centre project in Istanbul are among the properties on sale.

The number of real estate assets seized by the banks declined in H2 2020, with court-sanctioned bailiffs and asset seizure executions subject to a period of inactivity due to the coronavirus pandemic, but a rising trend in this area is expected in H2 2021, Dunya noted.

“We have 500 properties owned by banks in our portfolio. We expect a big boost in 2021. Our talks with banks confirm it,” Alper Percin of local real estate agencies network Turyap, told the daily.

The real impact will be observed in the next two to three years due to the slowdown in economic activity. It is expected that tourism facilities will be seized by the banks in 2021, Emre Ersahin, CEO of real estate portal Tapu.com, was cited as saying by the newspaper. Turkey’s tourism industry has been devastated by the coronavirus crisis.

In July, Ersahin told Dunya that there were around 25,000 pieces of real estate on the market owned by banks and that the figure could double within a year when repayments of the loan boom that was taking place became due. There were 11,913 homes on sale on the websites of the 25 leading banks in Turkey at that time, according to data compiled by Dunya.

In 2017, there were around 10,000 properties put up for sale by the banks, according to the newspaper has also reported.