THE number of properties in Turkey sold to foreign nationals rose by 17.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015.

A total of 4,268 were sold in the first quarter of 2015, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) said.

Foreign nationals purchased more than 35,000 properties between January 2013 and March 2015.

Ahmet Temeltaş, chairman of the construction firm Nova Gayrimenkul, said in a press release that the real estate sector in Turkey has been growing mostly because of foreign interest.

Foreign citizens seek to buy homes mostly in İstanbul, Sakarya, Bursa and Trabzon provinces, Temeltaş said, and the number of properties sold is highest in the months of April and September.

The real estate sector receives the highest number of investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Kuwait, Temeltaş added.

Underlining that the price of properties in districts close to the newly planned airport in İstanbul such as Esenyurt, Arnavütköy and Beylikdüzü will most probably increase in the near future, Temeltaş said.

Temeltaş said resales have also increased year-on-year and added: “Investor interest in second-hand homes is also growing because people can take over the title and rent or move into their properties immediately.”

Touching on the problems in the sector, Temeltaş said: “Apart from economic troubles, the biggest problem is with broken promises in construction projects. Unfortunately, brand-name projects and contractors who do a professional job suffer from these problems.”