In Turkey, house sales increased by 2.7% in May 2018 compared to the same month of the previous year and hence, became 119 655. For May 2018, İstanbul had the highest share of house sales with 16.8% and 20 061 sold house. The followers were Ankara with 11,919 house sales and İzmir 7 028 house sales with the share of 10% and 5.9% respectively.
In May 2018 alone , 2 415 houses were sold to foreigners in Turkey, according to statistics office, increased by 36.1% compared to the same month of the previous year.
Istanbul is the favorite destination for foreigners buying property in Turkey for May 2018 (1 month).
- Istanbul – 854 house sales
- Antalya – 595 house sales,
- Bursa – 141 house sales,
- Yalova – 108 house sales and
- Ankara – 96 house sales.
Iraqi citizens bought 407 houses from Turkey in May.
- Iraq – 407 house sales
- Iran – 217 house sales,
- Saudi Arabia – 206 house sales,
- Russia – 165 house sales and
- Afghanistan – 131 house sales.
Turkish Citizenship by investment program was introduced by the government on 12th January 2017 granting grant citizenship to foreigners who buy real estate in Turkey worth at least $1 million and hold the property for three years. Recently Turkey announced the prices soon will be cut to $300,000 under the investment scheme.
Turkey is more popular than Greece for Iraqis, for Greece only 266 persons received Greek golden visas since the start of Greece golden visa program.
