Turkey: Foreigners' share in house sales climb to 4%

By Ugur Aslanhan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Foreigners' investment in the Turkish housing sector has gained momentum recently with almost 4% houses sold to non-Turkish people in the first half of 2019, said the country's statistical authority Friday.

According to the information provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute, a total of 505,796 houses were sold in the first half of 2019.

Of them, 19,952 of the houses were sold to foreigners, a 69% rise from 2018.

Istanbul became the leading province that drew foreign attention with 9,903 houses sold to foreigners. Antalya and Ankara provinces ranked second and third, with foreigners buying 4,093 and 1,111 houses respectively.

Iraqis, Russians, Saudis, and Afghans were the top customers of the Turkish house sales sector.

Gokhan Tas, real estate giant Coldwell Banker's Turkey chair, told Anadolu Agency that the house sale in Turkey was a success story.

"With the regulations actualized in recent years and impact of foreign currency, Turkey has become a market for foreigners. The statistics confirm that. The foreigners' activity in the housing market is growing day by day," he said.

Emphasizing that foreigners' share in the housing market was merely 1% in 2013, when authorities first started to keep statistics, Tas said this figure climbed to almost 4% and this was a "record in the history of [Turkish] republic."

Tas went on to underline that house sales to foreigners were of huge significance given that Turkey actively fought the current account deficit.

"Statistics demonstrate that foreigners pay an average of some $150,000 to buy a house in Turkey, meaning sales of 10,000 houses would bring $1.5 billion to the country," he said.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas