UPDATE - Turkey: Nearly 73,000 houses sold in January

UPDATES WITH PROPERTY SALES TO FOREIGNERS FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey saw a 24.8 percent fall in house sales in January with a monthly total of 72,937 houses sold, the country's statistical office announced Monday.

TurkStat said 31,048 newly-built houses were sold while the remaining were second-hand sales last month.

"Istanbul had the highest share of house sales with 18.4 percent and 13,455 sold houses," the statistical institute said.

The capital Ankara and the Aegean province of Izmir followed Istanbul with 6,785 and 3,795 house sales, respectively.

Official figures showed that mortgaged house sales across the country had fallen to 6,537, down 77.2 percent on a yearly basis.

TurkStat noted that mortgaged sales represented 9 percent of all house sales in during the month.

Last year, over 1.37 million property sales were recorded in Turkey, while around 650,000 of them were newly-built houses.

- Sales to foreigners up 81.9 percent

Property sales to foreigners totaled at 3,168 units in January, climbing 81.9 percent year-on-year.

TurkStat said Istanbul was the most preferred city with 1,361 sales -- followed by the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya with 601 sales.

Iraqis purchased the most houses in January, buying a total 605 properties.

These were followed by Iranians with 305 purchases, as well as Russian, Afghan and Jordanian nationals making 195, 191 and 151 purchases each, the institute said.

In 2018, house sales to foreigners posted an annual hike of 78.4 percent, reaching 39,663 units.

TurkStat will release its next property sales report on March 18.