Sales of residential properties in Türkiye registered their first fall in a year in July, official data showed Tuesday, with Russians still leading foreign buyers – who also eased their purchases after a monthslong spree.

Home sales fell 12.9% year-over-year to 93,902 houses in July, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed. It marks the first annual drop since August 2021. Month-over-month, the figure was down 38% from 150,509 in June.

Sales still rose by 24.2% from January through July, versus the same period a year ago, with around 820,300 houses exchanging hands.

Industry officials had expected to end the year with more than 1.5 million house sales.

The rise came amid declining supply and soaring prices, with households viewing real estate as an attractive investment tool to shield themselves from inflation that runs at nearly 80%.

Istanbul had the highest share with 15.3% and 14,350 house sales in July, followed by the capital Ankara with 7,417 and the Aegean province of Izmir with 4,868, with shares of 7.9% and 5.2%, respectively.

The data showed July mortgaged sales fell 6.8% from a year earlier to 19,146 units, accounting for 20.4% of the total sales in the period.

Mortgaged sales in the January-July period jumped nearly 52% to 189,463 houses, the data showed.

Sales to foreigners dropped 12.4% on the year to 3,939 units, the institute said. They accounted for 4.2% of all house sales in July.

Sales were still nearly 57.5% higher from a year ago in the January-July period, when foreigners purchased some 39,322 houses.

Russians topped the list of foreign nationals with 1,028 houses purchased last month, reflecting how many have sought a financial haven in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the fallout of Western sanctions.

Wealthy Russians have been pouring money into real estate in Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amid stifling Western sanctions, many property companies say.

They were followed by Iranians with 431 house purchases and Iraqis with 380 last month, the data showed.

The Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya was the favorite spot with 1,421 sales to foreign nationals, unseating Istanbul for the first time in more than five-and-a-half years. Sales in Antalya jumped 129% year-over-year in the first seven months to 11,257 units.

The Turkish metropolis ranked second last month with 1,154 house sales to foreigners and the southern province of Mersin came in third with 289.

Russians boosted their purchases by a whopping 223.4% year-over-year in the first seven months. They bought some 6,877 houses, the data showed.

Iranians and Iraqis followed with 5,315 and 4,405 purchases. Among others, Germans bought 1,577 houses while Ukrainians purchased 1,352 residential properties.