ANKARA

Residential property sales in Turkey continue its upward trend, jumping 51.4% in February, compared to same month last year, the country's statistical authority announced Monday.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement that some 118,750 houses changed hands last month, up from almost 96,000 in the month a year earlier.

February figure was also up from previous month, when property sales was around 113,600 in January.

Housing sales to foreigners was also on rise during the same period, going up 20.6% to some 4,000 units.

Istanbul is the most popular city for foreign buyers, with constituting nearly half of sales to foreign buyers (almost 2,000 units).

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed it with 805 properties, while the capital Ankara came third with 265.

The highest number of the sales were made to Iranians who bought 721 units in February.

They were followed by Iraqis with 691 house sales, Russians with 282, Afghans with 256, and Jordanians with 141.

Commenting on data, Ahmet Erkurtoglu, the deputy head of the Contractors' Association on Istanbul's Anatolian side, said house sales to foreigners was also up compared to 2018.

"There will be a slowdown in sales to foreigners due to coronavirus in coming months," Erkurtoglu stressed.

He highlighted that a 53.5% rise in first two months' figure is owed to interest rates of less than 1% for housing loans and deposits.

"Real estate has always been a safe investment tool," he added.