Turkish housing sales up in September

The number of residential properties sold in Turkey soared by 28.8 percent annually in September, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Tuesday.

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.