UPDATE – Turkey: More than 105,000 house sales in March

UPDATES WITH COMMENTS FROM EXPERT</p> <p>By Tuba Sahin</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – A total of 105,046 residential properties were sold in Turkey last month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Wednesday. </p> <p>Even though overall sales were down 5.3% in March, compared to the same period last year, sales to foreigners rose significantly.</p> <p>&quot;Istanbul had the highest share of overall house sales in March at 18.2% with 19,140 units sold,&quot; TurkStat said.</p> <p>Melih Tavukcuoglu, head of the Contractors’ Association on Istanbul's Asian side, said the country will close 2019 with a slightly less number of sales compared to the last year.</p> <p>Turkey recorded over 1.37 million house sales in 2018, down 2.4 percent from previous year.</p> <p>&quot;We foresee that the sector will recover by 2020,&quot; Tavukcuoglu said.</p> <p> </p> <p>- Sales to foreigners </p> <p>Data showed that housing sales to foreigners jumped by 71.3 percent year-on-year to hit 3,129 units in March.</p> <p>&quot;Ever-increasing sales to foreigners shows that we will break a new sales record in 2019,&quot; he said.</p> <p>He projected that foreigners will buy around 50,000 houses by the end of 2019. </p> <p>Istanbul led the March list with 1,520 sales, followed by the Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya (626) and the capital Ankara (173).</p> <p>Iraqis recorded the most houses purchase with 548 units. Iranians followed them with 334 units and Saudis with 189 units.</p> <p>A total of 156 houses were sold to Russians and Afghans bought 150 units.</p> <p>&quot;Turkey offers a great advantage for foreigners with its both housing prices and historical and natural beauties.&quot; Tavukcuoglu added.</p> <p>Last year, property sales to foreigners posted an annual hike of 78.4 percent to reach 39,663 houses.