Property sales to foreigners in Turkey drop almost half amid coup attempt, long public holiday

ANKARA

The number of properties sold to foreigners in Turkey declined to 1,044 in July, a drop of 48.5 percent compared to the same month of 2015, amid instability over the failed attempted coup and the extended public holiday, official data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Aug. 24. 

Iraqis were again the top buyers with a total of 153 units in July, followed by Kuwaiti citizens with 111 units, Saudi Arabians with 92 units, British people with 71 units and Russians with 64 units, according to the data. 

A total of 10,422 units were sold to foreigners in the first seven months of the year, a 16 percent drop from the same period of 2015. 

The overall number of property sales across Turkey also decreased to 81,343 units in July, when the Eid public holiday was extended to nine days, a drop of 15.8 percent from the same month of 2015.

The number of mortgaged housing sales dropped to 23,756 in July, a decrease of around 23 percent from the same month of 2015.