Over 1.37 million houses sold in Turkey in 2018

Turkey recorded over 1.37 million house sales in 2018, the country's statistical office reported Wednesday.

TurkStat said property sales fell by 2.4 percent last year, compared to the previous year.

"Istanbul had the highest share of house sales with 17 percent and 234,055 sold house," it said.

The capital Ankara and the Aegean province of Izmir followed Istanbul with 131,161 and 75,672 house sales, respectively.

"In Turkey, 276,820 of all sales were mortgaged sales and 1,098,578 are other house sales," TurkStat said.

The institute stated that around 650,000 newly-built houses were sold while the rest were second-hand sales in 2018.