CHANGING THE WORKFORCE

Foreign workers can help fill some of the gaps, although they make up only about 2 percent of the current labour force, and companies hiring for "unskilled" positions like farm work must rely on trainees under an internship programme that lasts up to five years.

The government has said it will create new categories for foreign workers with more limited skills, but will issue only a small number of such visas.

Mazda Motor Corp's suppliers, which typically operate independently, are cooperating to figure out the best way to use artificial intelligence and robots to remove human workers from the equation altogether.

"Our goal is to create unmanned production lines that can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said Masato Uno, chairman of the Hiroshima Manufacturing Engineering Association, a consortium of Mazda suppliers and IT companies. "We expect this to address problems with productivity and labour shortages."

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The report showed that among the member states, the highest growths were recorded in Sweden (56 percent), Austria (49 percent), Latvia (47 percent) and Luxembourg (40 percent), while the biggest dips were recorded in Spain (17 percent), Italy (15 percent) and Cyprus (9 percent).

Since 2006, the house prices -- including newly built and existing houses and apartments -- have oscillated dramatically, the report revealed.

"Annual growth rates in the EU were around 8 percent in 2006 and 2007, followed by a fall of 4 percent in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, while prices started growing again in 2014," said Eurostat.

House prices rose by 4.5 percent in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to the same period of the previous year.

It also grew 0.7 percent in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared with the previous quarter.

The data collected from the Eurostat indicated that among the member states for which data were available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2017 were seen in Ireland (11.8 percent), Portugal (10.5 percent) and Slovenia (10.0 percent), while prices dropped in Italy (0.3 percent).

"Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Slovenia (3.7 percent), Croatia (3.2 percent) and Cyprus (2.7 percent), while decreases were observed in Sweden (2.8 percent), Denmark (1.7 percent), Belgium (0.4 percent) and Finland (0.3 percent)," the report posted.

A total of 140,298 houses changed hands in September, up by 16.7 percent compared to a month earlier.

The number of properties sold to foreigners jumped by 75.2 percent year-on-year in the month, TurkStat revealed.

Of the total sales, 2,236 houses were sold to foreigners, with approximately 35.6 percent (or 797 units) of them in Istanbul, the country's largest city by population.

Following Istanbul, the Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya came second with sales of 520 properties, while the Aegean province of Aydin, the northwestern province of Bursa and the Black Sea coast province of Trabzon shared third place with sales of 119 properties.

Official data showed that Iraqis topped the list of buyers in September with 383 properties. Saudi Arabians followed with 344 units, Kuwaitis 160, Russians 129 and British 103.

- New record in house sales is on the way

Commenting on the September figures, the head of the Istanbul Constructors' Association (INDER), Nazmi Durbakayim said the upward trend in house sales had continued even in the more-stagnant period of the year-- summer-- and jumped in September with the effects of housing campaigns.

"We can close the year with total sales of 1.5 million via the continuation of campaigns and the launching of new projects along with an expectation of a reduction in interest rates [on home loans]," Durbakayim stated.

Currently, the mortgage rate for 120 months is between 1.06 percent and 1.50 percent per month in Turkey.

Melih Tavukcuoglu, the head of the Istanbul Anatolian-side Contractors’ Association, said an increase of 28.8 percent is a sign of a new record for the end of this year.

"We estimate that house sales will continue increasingly in the last quarter and we are planning to close the year with a new sales record," Tavukcuoglu added.

Turkish house sales hit an all-time record with total sales of 1.3 million units in 2016, according to TurkStat.

Official data showed that the number of residential properties sold in Turkey reached nearly one million units in the first nine months of this year.

Tavukcuoglu noted that the housing sector has been quite active in this summer despite Ramadan and the slow pace of sales in summer seasons.

Both discounts in value-added tax and campaigns for big housing projects galvanized buyers, Tavukcuoglu added.

Pointing to the rise in the number of properties sold to foreigners, Tavukcuoglu said that the total number of houses sold to foreigners would exceed last years' numbers.

The number of properties sold to foreigners stood at 18,189 units in 2016 but has already reached 15,241 in January-September of this year, according to TurkStat.

Tavukcuoglu noted that houses sold to foreigners in Istanbul climbed by 146.7 percent yearly in September 2017.

"The increase in house sales to foreigners shows confidence in Turkey has increased and discounts in value-added tax for foreigners as well as granting citizenship to foreigners who buy real estate in Turkey worth a minimum $1 million had a positive effect on house sales," he stated.

The chairman of the Association of Housing Developers and Investors, Ziya Altan Elmas, also underlined that property sales to foreigners had increased steadily.

"House sales to foreigners will continue in last the [last] three months of the year," Elmas added.

Akzirve Gayrımenkül is a sub company of Saudi Arabia's Al-Qemam Holding.

The $500 million construction project investments in Istanbul's Bahçeşehir and Zeytinburnu districts are expected to earn $120 billion, according to AKzirve Gayrimenkül's CEO İbrahim Maasfeh.

    In August 105,624 houses were sold compared to 84,480 which were traded in the same month last year, Turkstat reported on its website indicating a 25 percent increase in sales after a six-month long downwards trend since February.

    Additionally, the decline in mortgages in the past seven months halted this August. The number of mortgages given saw an annual rise of 12 percent  from  August 2013 with 31,559 to 35,338 this August.

    House sales in Turkey were in decline since the Central Bank of Turkey introduced sharp interest rate hikes at the end of January in order to stop the slide in value of the Turkish Lira against foreign currencies and address the increasing current account deficit.

    High interest rates increased the cost of buying a home as mortgages repayments became more costlier. Consequently, mortgage demand was lowered which suppressed house sales in the country.