Russian house purchases in Türkiye up 199% in 9 months
An aerial view of Istanbul from an airplane flying over the historic city with World Heritage landmarks, Türkiye, April 12, 2020. (Reuters Photo)


Russian housing investment in Türkiye increased by 199% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period of 2021, according to official data.

Russian citizens bought some 9,311 houses in the January-September period, which is among the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The overall housing sales to foreigners throughout the country increased by 32.5% on an annual basis in the January-September period and reached 49,644, the data by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

In the first nine months of the year, the province with the most housing sales was Istanbul with 19,594 units.

Approximately 40 out of every 100 houses sold to foreigners across the country were made in the megacity.

Istanbul was followed by the Mediterranean city of Antalya with 14,656 units, southern Mersin with 2,596, capital Ankara with 2,295, northwestern Bursa with 1,532, northwestern Yalova with 1,375 and western Sakarya with 1,054.

Western Izmir and Black Sea provinces of Samsun and Trabzon were also in the top 10.

Since March, there was a rapid increase in the number of residences bought by both Russian and Ukrainian citizens.

In the first nine months of last year, Russians purchased only 3,115 houses.

The number of houses purchased by Ukrainians also increased by 125% to 1,775.

In the nine months of the year, Iranians bought 6,540 units, followed by Iraqis with 5,255, German citizens with 2,058, Kazakhs with 2,045, Afghans with 1,487, Kuwaitis with 1,318, Yemenis with 1,045 and Americans with 1,032.