One house sold every 2.5 minutes in Turkey in 2017

A total of 440,226 houses changed hands in the first four months of 2017, the equivalent of 2.5 residential sales per minute, according to Turkish Statistical Institute's (TÜİK) report released Wednesday.

With big real estate projects, the sector increased its diversity and thus offered investors and those looking to buy a house new opportunities.

Long-term sales also reflected positively on the market, and during the period between January and April residential sales increased by 7.42 percent to 440,226 sales. The same period saw an average rate of 3,668.55 sales per day, the TÜİK said.

According to the data, nearly 35 percent of the sales were made in Turkey's three biggest cities – Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. 76,099 houses changed ownership in Istanbul in 2017 so far, making up 17 percent of Turkey's overall residential sales. Ankara and Izmir followed with 50,328 and 27,184 sales respectively