House sales increased by 24.2 percent in January-July from a year ago, while sales to foreigners grew more than 57 percent year-on-year, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

A total of 820,300 units changed hands in the first seven months of the year, TÜİK reported on Aug. 16.

House sales to foreigners between January and July, increased by 57.4 percent from a year ago to 39,322.
In July alone, foreign nationals bought 3,939 houses in Turkey, marking a 12.4 year-on-year decline.

Last month, Antalya took over Istanbul as the most favored property market among foreign nationals. Foreigners purchased 1,421 houses in the city. House sales to foreigners in Istanbul stood at 1,154 units, followed by Mersin where foreign nationals bought 289 units.

Russians once again topped the list of homebuyers in July, buying 1,028 houses across the country last month, followed by Iranians at 431 units.

House sales to Iraqis and Kazakhs stood at 380 and 190 units, respectively. Ukrainians and German nationals purchased 166 and 163 houses last month, respectively.