The way to solve the housing, rent, and cost crisis

Oh Son!

You are a Bey; from now on, you shall provide 'Cheap Loans' only for small residences, and you shall levy high taxes on large residences.

First of all, I would like to thank my fellow soldier, Prof. Dr. Barış Doster, for guiding me to write this. Although I received a salary during my 12-month national service as a second lieutenant to ensure that citizens live in peace and security, I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Turkish Armed Forces for being the reason I met Doster.

May God be pleased with our army. Unfortunately, Doster is one of those rare people nature produces; I wish it were possible to cultivate such people with financial means, and we would have sold everything we owned to do so. We would be living in a different world then. But that is not how it works. Even nature is very stingy in this regard. The fact that this 'once in a while' occurrence happened to me is a clear and distinct indicator of what a beloved servant of God I am. Let those who do not know, know.

Anyway, let us now come to the main idea of my article.

The recent housing-rent problem. Was it possible for this hardship we are currently experiencing not to be a problem? If a precaution had been taken, would rents have been this annoying?

Those who have extra houses are not annoyed at all; in fact, they are extremely pleased with this situation. They have reached a monthly income level almost equivalent to 2-3 retirement pensions. May God give them more; we do not begrudge them. May the Almighty also give to those who do not have. Amen!

Now, there is no point in writing about the mistakes made in the past here. What is done is done. Let bygones be bygones. There is no point in crying over spilled milk. It has already been spilled...

Is there no other remedy than saying 'May God save us'?

Of course there is!

Will engineers who put hundreds of people into a box, take them up to 30 thousand feet, and transport them 15 thousand km away with zero errors, or who bring gas from the Gobi Desert 10 thousand km away to our homes, not be able to find a solution to this?

Now let me give you some data and explain how this problem can be easily solved by giving up a little bit of our comfort.

According to our Statistical Institute, almost half of the residences we live in are 4+1. Nearly 40 percent are 3+1. Only 6 percent are 2+1. In contrast, the average household size is around 3 people. In short, the average residential area we use per person is more than the area used by the people of developed countries. It is almost double.

We easily produce enough housing area to meet our needs in a year. However, because we cannot achieve the right ratio of independent units, we both constantly fall behind the demand and our housing prices remain very high.

In other words, it is possible for us to produce the number of houses we need annually at an affordable price. Reducing our square meters and keeping the resource/need ratio at a logical level easily solves our problem.

The missed 'housing area/number of houses' ratio causes bloating in the body, disrupts the body's aerodynamic structure, leads to the widening of hips and narrowing of the chest, and ultimately causes us to experience heart spasms.

One should not pay attention to the delusions of real estate zealots who appear on television every day, rebelling like Janissaries, saying, 'We want new housing areas,' 'Open the fields for zoning,' 'We want high-rise buildings.' Listening to suburban contractors whose only goal is to make money, and to make money in any case, will not solve the problem; on the contrary, it will make it even bigger.

Only a sapper unit can handle the Janissaries. Otherwise, the Janissaries will add new ones to the museums of skulls.

I think we have understood the reason for the housing-rent-cost-price crisis we have fallen into.

The solution is already within the problem itself.

1. Temporary 'mobile' sites with ready infrastructure and low rent should be established urgently, either by municipalities or through TOKİ, in areas that are not zoned but are not far from the city center, especially for young people and those starting new families.

2. The number of 2+1 residences, which is around 5-6 percent, should be increased rapidly to 80 percent, and the problem will be solved instantly.

3. Both license and other fees such as title deed and purchase-sale taxes for houses smaller than 80-90 square meters should be reduced, while those for large ones should be increased logarithmically.

4. Resources provided by public banks, which also include the sweat of the poor people (housing loans), should be used for 2+1 residences. We were hit by the wall by both the driver's seat and the 25 cents. A man will both buy a 250 m2 house to please his wife (who knows, perhaps to not hear her nagging while she cleans her big house or to send his wife to the afterlife early due to constant cleaning) and get a cheap loan from a public bank. Oh, and add some of its juice too.

If these four items are adhered to, the housing problem will be permanently solved within the next 5 years and will not appear before us as a heart attack that peaks every 7-8 years like a sine curve. Young people will also be saved from the tyranny of impudent real estate tycoons and will be able to comfortably secrete progesterone hormones and find the chance to establish a warm home.