Residential property sales increased 10.6 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday. A total of 1,289,320 residential properties were sold last year.

Foreign interest was also higher in 2015. Residential property sales to foreigners increased 20.4 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year. Istanbul was the most popular destinations for foreigners, while the country's top resort destination Antalya came second, followed by Bursa and Yalova in third and fourth, respectively.

According to country nationalities, Iraqis purchased the most residential properties in 2015 – amounting to 4,228 properties. Iraqi buyers were followed by Saudi Arabia with 2,704; Kuwait with 2,130; Russia with 2,036; and the United Kingdom with 1,054.

Of the total 2015 residential property sales, Istanbul had the highest share with 18.6 percent -- 239,767 properties. Ankara followed Istanbul with 146,537 residential properties (11.4 percent) and İzmir with 77,796 properties (6 percent). The fewest residential properties were sold in the province of Hakkari (139). Mortgaged property sales accounted for 434,388 residences, while 854,932 were other property sales.

While 774,874 (60.1 percent) of all residential properties sold were bought by men, 382,237 (29.6 percent) were bought by women, and 29,708 (2.3 percent) were bought jointly by men and women.