Foreigners buy over 22,000 properties in Turkey in 2017, up 22.2 pct

ANKARA

Foreigners purchased a total of 22,234 properties across Turkey in 2017, a 22.2 percent year-on-year increase from the previous years, with Iraqis being the top buyer, official data showed on Jan. 19.

Sales to foreigners had declined 20.3 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year, dropping to 18,189 units amid various security concerns.

Iraqis bought 3, 805 units in Turkey in 2017, according to data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK). They were followed by Saudis with 3,345 units, Kuwaitis with 1,691 units, Russians with 1,331 units and Afghans with 1,078 units.

In house sales to foreigners, Istanbul was the number one province with 8,182 units in 2017, TÜİK data showed. The Mediterranean resort of Antalya was the second most popular province with 4,707 units sold to foreigners, followed by the nortwestern provinces of Bursa and Yalova, with 1,474 units and 1,079 units respectively.

Overall property sales up 5.1 percent

The total number of property sales across Turkey rose 5.1 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, TÜİK data showed.

Last year, 1.4 million residential properties were sold, while Istanbul had the largest share of house sales with 16.9 percent or 238,383 units.

TÜİK said the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir 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, according to TÜİK data. There was also a 5.2 percent year-on-year increase in the number of mortgaged property sales in Turkey in 2017.