According to a report released by London-based residential and commercial property consulting company Knight Frank, three cities in Turkey were among the top 20 cities in the world with the highest increase in house prices. The greatest increase in house prices in Turkey was in Istanbul at 25 percent, ranked third in the world for house prices. Istanbul was followed by Izmir and Ankara at 16.5 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively. Izmir and Ankara ranked sixth and 13th in the world, respectively. The report, based on the global house price index for 156 cities, reveals that the average increase in worldwide house prices was 4.4 percent.

The leading players in the construction sector in Izmir attributed the rise in house prices to population growth, internal migration, the failure to create new land for housing and the fact that upper-segment houses push up market prices in the housing sector.

The striking point is that Izmir outperformed all European cities in terms of the rise in house prices. Seven out of the top 20 cities on the list are European cities. The Hungarian capital of Budapest, where house prices saw the highest increase among other European cities, followed Izmir with a 16.3 percent rise. The report also indicates that house prices in Greek cities, which are located on the other side of the Aegean Sea, dropped in comparison to 2014. House prices in 121 cities either increased or remained the same in 2015; however, they dropped in 44 cities. The highest increase in house prices in the world was in Shenzhen, China, at 47.5 percent, as the city became China's industrial and commercial capital.