Sharp increase observed in house sales to foreign buyers in 2018

According to the January 2018 retail sales report released by Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), there is a significant rise in the number of foreign buyers in the property market. The number of houses sold to foreign people in January 2017 increased by 25,7 percent, reaching the number of 1,742.

Istanbul was the most preferred city by foreign buyers

Istanbul ranked first in the list of cities foreign investors preferred the most by 545 housing sales in January 2018. Antalya came second by a sale of 427 houses, Bursa the third by 161 houses, Yalova the fourth by 90 houses and Trabzon by 82.

Retail sales sector grew by 22.2 percent

Last year, 22 thousand 234 houses were sold and a growth of 22.2 percent was observed in the retail sales sector compared to the year of 2016. According to the data given by TÜİK, 97,019 houses were sold in Turkey last month, with a 1.7 percent year-on-year increase.

Tax exemption for foreign buyers

An important factor affecting the increase of the sales was that value added tax exemption for foreign buyers and the naturalization of foreigners who buy a residence that is worth more than 1 million dollars.

List of the countries in the market

But which country has the highest number of citizens who bought houses in Turkey within the month of January? Iraqis became number one buyers with 272 houses in January, followed by Afghanistan with 124 houses, Russia with 121 and Kuwait with 108 houses in Turkey.

Here is the list of countries by home ownership numbers:

Sweden: 38

Kazakhistan: 40

Qatar: 40

Yemen: 50

England: 55

Egypt: 62

Azerbaijan: 65

Iran: 83

Jordan: 84

Germany: 89

Kuwait: 108

Russian Federation: 121

Afghanistan: 124

Saudi Arabia: 160

Iraq: 272