House sales in Türkiye reached their highest level this year in September, official data showed Thursday, renewing the prior peak seen in August, with nearly 141,000 units sold.

Türkiye recorded 140,919 house sales in September, marking a 37.3% increase year-over-year, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

This compared to 134,155 sales in August and 138,577 in December last year.

The figure also marked the highest level in sales since December 2022.

Istanbul accounted for the largest share of sales, with 21,314 units sold, followed by the capital of Ankara with 13,205 units, and the Aegean city of Izmir with 7,612 units.

Mortgaged house sales increased by 87.4% in September compared to the same month of the previous year reaching 15,825 units. They had an 11.2% share of all house sales.

Home sales plunged in the first half of the year, which analysts attributed to tighter financial conditions amid the series of hikes of the Turkish central bank, but the sales have seen a positive trend since July.

However, house sales to foreigners fell by 31% year-on-year to 2,022 units in September, the data showed. These sales accounted for 1.4% of all house sales in the month.

Istanbul led in foreign sales with 783 units, followed by the Mediterranean cities of Antalya and Mersin, with 548 and 210 units, respectively.

Sales to foreigners have been falling slightly this year after a longer period marked by a strong trend of purchases by Russians and Ukrainians in the face of war. In the first nine months, sales to foreigners dropped by 39.1% compared to the previous year, totaling 17,090 units.

Russian citizens still purchased the most properties among foreigners in September with 346 units, followed by Iranian citizens with 163 and Iraqis with 139, TurkStat noted.

Between January and September, overall house sales in Türkiye rose by 5.2% to 947,236 units.