Foreigners display increased appetite for Turkish houses

ANKARA

Much of the demand for houses in Turkey in 2015 has come from foreign buyers, according to a report by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Friday.

Foreigners bought 22,830 of the more than a million houses sold in Turkey last year, the report said.

This was an increase of 20.4 percent compared with 18,959 houses in 2014, the report said.

Total home sales in the country were up 10.6 percent from 2014, to 1,289,320, the report said.

Figures show that home sales have been rising over the years in Turkey, as the number of houses sold increased to 1,165,381 in 2014, from 701,621 in 2012.

In overall sales, the country’s largest city by population, Istanbul, maintained its top spot with almost 18.6 percent of house sales numbering 239,767 houses.

The capital Ankara and the western province of Izmir followed with 146,537 and 77,796 houses respectively.

Istanbul, was the most popular province for foreign buyers with 7,493 houses sold to them last year; 6,072 houses were sold to foreigners in the popular holiday destination Antalya; 1,501 in Bursa and 1,425 in Yalova.