ISTANBUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Property sales to foreigners across Turkey surged by 134.4 percent in October, the Turkish Statistics Institute reported on Wednesday.
A total of 6,276 residences were sold to foreigners last month, with Istanbul taking the largest share at 2,283 sales, according to the data released by the agency.
The southern city of Antalya on the Mediterranean shore and the northwestern city of Bursa ranked second and third with 1,160 and 448 sales respectively.
In the view of Muttalip Iscan, a real estate investment consultant, Turkey's recent move in easing the financial and investment criteria for foreigners to obtain Turkish citizenship was the most important factor behind the "historic" surge.
In September, Turkish authorities announced that foreigners who own real estate in Turkey worth at least 250,000 U.S. dollars, down from 1 million dollars, can become Turkish citizens.
"We saw the result of that motion in October," Iscan told Xinhua, saying several construction companies had began to provide citizenship services following the amendment.
"They are now saying to foreigners if you buy a house, we can get your Turkish citizenship within two months," he noted.
Iraqi citizens topped the list of foreign customers in October by purchasing 1,439 houses in Turkey, followed by Iranians (557), Kuwaitis (378), Germans (341) and Russians (336).
