REVISED LEDE, UPDATED WITH REMARKS FROM FINANCE MINISTER
By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) - Praising the performance of Turkey's construction sector, the treasury and finance minister said Monday the country saw the highest housing sales figure in July with 229,357 units.
Residential property sales in Turkey jumped 124.3% year-on-year in July, according to the country’s statistical authority on Monday.
A total of 229,357 houses changed hands last month, up from 190,012 the same month last year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.
Commenting on the July figure, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak thanked state lenders for providing low interest mortgages.
Housing sales to foreign buyers slipped during the same period, down 34.6% to 2,741 units.
Istanbul, the country’s largest city by population, enjoyed the lion’s share of sales to foreign buyers, with 1,046 units. The Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya followed with 615 properties, while the capital Ankara came third with 230.
The July data showed that Iranian citizens made up the largest group of foreign buyers based on nationality, as they bought 540 houses in Turkey. They were followed by Iraqis with 388 house sales, Russians with 154, Afghans with 149, and Germans with 143.
In January-July, some 854,126 residential properties were sold in Turkey, rising 40.5% from the same period last year.
TurkStat said house sales to foreigners also fell 29.6% on an annual basis to 17,003 in the first seven months of this year.