House sales in Turkey rise 5.1 percent in 2017, foreign demand increases by one-fifth

The number of property sales in Turkey rose 5.1 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, the country's statistical authority TurkStat said on Friday.

Last year, 1.4 million residential properties were sold, while Istanbul -- Turkey's largest city by population and one of its top tourist draws -- had the largest share of house sales with 16.9 percent or 238,383 houses.

TurkStat said the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of Izmir racked up 150,561 (10.7 percent) and 84,184 (6 percent) of total housing sales, respectively.

"In Turkey, 473,099 of all sales were mortgaged sales and 936,215 were other house sales," the institute said.

Some 838,000 houses or 59.4 percent were bought by men, and about 409,500 houses or 29.1 percent were bought by women, TurkStat said, while over 29,000 houses or 2.1 percent were bought jointly by women and men.

House sales to foreigners up 22.2 percent

Official data showed that property sales to foreigners in Turkey rose 22.2 percent year-on-year in 2017.

"In house sales to foreigners, Istanbul was the number one province with 8,182 sales in 2017," TurkStat said.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya came in number two, with 4,707 sales to foreigners, followed by Bursa and Yalova.

TurkStat data said the largest number of house sales by foreign nationality went to Iraqis, who bought 3,805 houses, followed by Saudi citizens with 3,345, Kuwaitis with 1,691, Russians with 1,331, and Afghans with 1,078.

TurkStat will release its next property sales report on Feb. 21.