Official Turkish statistics released on Friday shows Iranians have continued buying houses in neighboring Turkey despite the escalating coronavirus pandemic in the country.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute's latest report released on Friday, with 465 properties purchased in the past month and a total of 1,864 in the past three months Iranian citizens are at the top of the list of foreigners who have purchased properties in the country.
Until February Iraqi citizens purchased were the biggest buyers of properties in Turkey among all foreign citizens, purchasing 17% of all houses sold to foreigners.
The data also indicates that Iranians have bought 40% more houses in March 2020 in comparison with the same month in 2019 and three times more than March 2018.
By purchasing houses in Turkey, Iranians pave their way to becoming Turkish citizens which allows them to do business as Turkish nationals to avoid U.S. sanctions.
The latest data only reflects information on the housing sector and does not include other types of real estate and assets, including land, businesses, stores, and small factories.
The Turkish government introduced a 48-hour curfew last weekend to curb the spread of the virus. With 78,546 confirmed cases Turkey is now among the top 10 countries that have the biggest number of coronavirus cases. As of Friday, 1,769 people have died of COVID-19 in the country.
Iran was the second country in the world with a coronavirus epidemic which started in February while Turkey reported its first case on March 11.