Saudis top foreign property buyers in Turkey in May

The number of residential properties sold to foreigners in Turkey surged by 10.1 percent year-on-year in May, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed on June 23, with Saudi Arabian citizens topping the buyers list.

Total residential property sales in Turkey increased by 1.5 percent year-on-year in May and a total of 116,558 properties changed hands, up by 1.8 percent compared to a month earlier, TÜİK stated.

Of those sales, 1,775 were to foreigners, with 30 percent (or 530 units) of them in Istanbul, the country's largest city by population.

Behind Istanbul, the Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya came in second with 442 properties, while the Black Sea province of Trabzon ranked third with 123.

The TÜİK data also revealed that Saudis topped the list of buyers with 285 properties, followed by Iraqis with 277 units, Russians with 134 units, Kuwaitis with 125 units and Afghans with 70 units.

For property sales in May, Istanbul had the highest share of 17.4 percent and 20,287 properties sold.

Following Istanbul was Ankara with a share of 10.8 percent and 12,631 properties sold and İzmir with a share of 6.1 percent and 7,121 properties sold.

The provinces with the least properties sold were Hakkari with eight properties sold, Ardahan with 12 properties sold and Bayburt with 39 properties sold.

The number of mortgaged-property sales throughout Turkey was 41,738, increasing by 17.8 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.

Property sales with a mortgage had a 35.8 percent share of all residential properties sold in Turkey. 

Most of the property sales with mortgages were in Istanbul with 7,698 properties sold, while mortgaged property sales had the...