Annual property sales in Turkey rose by 4 percent in 2016, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Tuesday.

A total of 1,341,453 houses changed hands in Turkey between January and December 2016, marking a 4 percent increase compared with 1,289,320 houses in 2015.

Of those sales, 18,189 were sold to foreigners, with approximately 32 percent (or 5,811 units) of them in Istanbul, the country's largest city by population. This corresponds to over 22 percent decline compared with the same period in the previous year.

However, total sales to foreigners decreased by 20.3 percent due to some domestic issues in the country such as coup attempts.

Following Istanbul, the holiday resort city of Antalya came in second with 4,352 properties, while the northwestern province of Bursa ranked third with 1,318.

TurkStat data also revealed that Iraqis topped the list of buyers with 3,036 properties, followed by Saudis (1,886 units), Kuwaitis (1,744), Russians (1,224) and Afghans (1,205).

In overall sales, Istanbul has maintained its top spot with 17.3 percent (232,428 units) of house transfers. The capital, Ankara, and the western province of Izmir followed, with 10.8 percent (144,570 units) and 6.1 percent (81,316 units) shares, respectively.

In December, house sales went up by 0.1 percent year-on-year to 142,713 units.

Mortgages for house sales in the country advanced by 21.8 percent in December 2016 to 49,076 units compared with the same month the previous year as the major lender dropped their interest rates for 10-year mortgages.