House sales to foreigners further increase in Turkey

Fikirtepe/İstanbul

More than 133,000 houses were sold in Turkey in April, in a 38.8 percent increase compared to the same month last year, figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

Nearly 20 percent of the residential properties were sold in İstanbul, the country's largest city, and less than 10 percent were sold in Ankara, the capital.

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House sales to foreigners increased by 58.1 percent in April compared to the same month last year. The 6,447 residential properties sold to foreigners made up 4.8 percent of all sales last month.

House sales to foreigners by months. (Graphics: TurkStat)

Among the sales to foreigners, 2,564 were in İstanbul, 1,970 were in Antalya and 333 were in Ankara.

In the January-April period, 20,791 residential properties were sold to foreigners, increasing by 48.9 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

Citizens of Russia bought the highest number of houses in April with 1,152. They were followed by citizens of Iran with 905 and Iraq with 714.

Turkey grants citizenship to foreigners who buy a residential property worth 400,000 US dollars in the country and their families.

House sales to foreigners by country in April.

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