THE number of real estate sales to foreign buyers increased 81 percent in September from the same period of the previous year, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) has revealed. 

Some 1,857 homes were acquired by foreigners in September, according to the TÜİK figures.

Around 13,611 real estate purchases were sold to foreign buyers in the first nine months of the year, exceeding the number sold to foreigners in the whole of 2013, during which they bought 12,181. 

The most properties sold to foreigners occurred in the Mediterranean province of Antalya with 590 transactions, followed by Istanbul with 546 sales and the Aegean province of Aydın with 144.

Some 112 houses were sold to foreigners in the Mediterranean province of Muğla and 96 in the southern province of Mersin.

A total of 7,917 foreigners contributed $7.9 billion to the Turkish economy from January to July, a quarter of which was in real estate, according to Economy Ministry data.

Foreigners invested some $2.2 billion in real estate in the first seven months of 2014, marking a 63.9 percent increase from the same period last year.  

Overall, the number of homes sold across the country increased by 13.2 percent in September from the same month last year, rising to 115,786 houses.

However, there was an overall 3.6 percent decrease in the number of homes sold in Turkey in the first nine months of this year from the same period of 2013, dropping to 831,287.