Housing sales drop by 8.1 percent in June in Turkey

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - The number of residential properties sold in Turkey decreased by 8.1 percent annually in June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Monday.

A total of 97,579 houses changed hands in June, down by 16.3 percent compared with a month earlier.

The number of properties sold to foreigners surged by 24.8 percent year-on-year in June.

Of the total sales, 1,926 houses were sold to foreigners, with approximately 46.8 percent (or 903 units) of them in Istanbul, the country's largest city by population.

Following Istanbul, the Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya came second with 408 properties, while the northwestern province of Bursa ranked third with 93 units.

The figures showed that Saudis topped the list of buyers with 612 properties, followed by Iraqis with 239 units, Kuwaitis 136, Russians 115 and British 87.