Turkish house sales up 32 pct in March

House sales across Turkey were up over 32.4 percent in March, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜ?K) said in a statement on April 24.

Housing sales in Turkey surged nationwide in March following an increase of 15 percent in February and a drop of 1.7 percent in January, the statement said.

In March, 116,030 houses changed hands across the country. Of those, 1,610 were sold to foreigners, up from 1,362 in the same month of last year, including 548 houses in Istanbul, 451 in the southern holiday resort province of Antalya and 119 houses in the northwestern province of Yalova.

The provinces with the fewest houses sold were ??rnak with 35 house sales, Ardahan with 20 house sales and Hakkari with 15 house sales.

Istanbul maintained its top spot with almost 18.9 percent of all house sales. The capital Ankara and the western province of ?zmir followed with 12.2 and 5.9 percent shares, respectively.

Mortgages for house sales in March rose to 45,315, an increase of 85.2 percent compared with 24,465 the same month of the previous year.       

In the first three months of the year, 297,218 houses were sold.