Turkey: More than 500,000 houses sold in H1

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - House sales in Turkey fell to 505,796 properties in the first half of 2019, down 21.7% on a yearly basis, the country's statistical office announced Wednesday.

Some 206,254 houses were sold for the first time while the remaining were second-hand sales from January to June, according to TurkStat.

Istanbul -- Turkey's largest city by population and one of its top tourist centers -- took the largest share of house sales with 18% or 91,561 houses in the first six months of this year.

Official data showed that the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of Izmir racked up 48,814 (9.6%) and 29,066 (5.7% percent) of total housing sales, respectively.

Mortgaged house sales were recorded at 82,885 -- a 16.4% share of all house sales over the same period.