The number of U.S. citizens purchasing real estate in Turkey increased by 115.2% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to official data.

The number of total house sales to foreigners increased by 43.5% in 2021 year-on-year, amounting to a total of 58,576, an Anadolu Agency (AA) report citing TurkStat data said Thursday.

During the period in question, the number of residences in Turkey purchased by investors holding a U.S. passport increased by nearly three times the general average. The number of residences purchased by Americans in Turkey, which was 658 in the previous year, reached 1,416.

While the highest sales figure was recorded in August with 173 units, it was followed by July with 153, December with 151, June with 150, September with 143 and November with 142.

Ömer Faruk Akbal, Head of the Real Estate Overseas Promotion Association (GİGDER), told AA that Turkey is preferred by foreign buyers for many purposes such as investment, retirement, health, tourism, vacation and education, while digital nomadism has come to the fore recently.

Expressing that the pandemic brought the culture of working remotely to professionals around the world, Akbal said, "Turkey has the potential to bring together cultures that want to live here for many different purposes. Thus, it also attracts the attention of digital nomads."

Akbal said that the majority of the investors holding U.S. passports consist of Muslim expats who immigrated to the country.

"We are talking about a mass of expats who immigrated to the U.S. in the past, established a business there, lived there for years and now search for alternative destinations. Although most of them are of Arab origin, we can say that there are also foreigners of Pakistani and Indian origin," he said.

He added that Americans are also investing and that those who know the real estate market well want to invest in Turkey.

Akbal also noted that Islamophobia and rising racism in the West also have an impact on those expats choosing to settle in Turkey.