Housing must be removed as an investment vehicle!

The country's most significant problem is undoubtedly that millions of people are living on an income below the poverty line...

There is another major problem that, for some reason, neither the government nor the opposition seems to care about...

The housing crisis!

With the impact of the Syrian and Afghan migration we have experienced in recent years, prices for both homes for sale and for rent have exploded.

Consequently, the number of people forced to live in rented accommodation has increased rapidly.

The proportion of tenants in our country within the total population was 20.9 percent in 2012; today, it has approached 35 percent.

While one reason for this is the number of immigrants coming to our country, the primary reason is that the right to housing, which is a constitutional right, is ignored by the state!

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Those living in the highest income groups own dozens, or even hundreds, of housing deeds solely for investment purposes. Their view of housing as an investment vehicle causes housing prices to rise to unimaginable figures, especially in large cities...

Because of this, those on fixed incomes can no longer even dream of becoming homeowners.

This segment of society is condemned to a lifetime of renting.

Meanwhile, heirs who own dozens of houses or apartments live in abundance and prosperity without ever working, and they even set the rent amounts themselves.

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I know; the next part of my article will make some people furious...

But as someone who believes that “the right to housing is a fundamental human right,” I believe that this distorted system must be brought to an end.

And the way to do that is clear:

Housing must be removed as an investment vehicle...

It should be legally prohibited for any individual to own more than “two, or at most three, housing deeds.”

For this, all property owners should be given a five-year “transition period.”

And, of course, the sale of housing to foreigners must be made more difficult!

In this way, housing supply should be increased, and housing prices, which have reached the levels of the world's wealthiest countries, should be brought down to a level accessible to those with low and fixed incomes...

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Some of you will say, “Are you engaging in wealth-bashing?”

No...

You can have as much wealth as you want...

Go find another investment vehicle that will triple or quintuple your money!

What I am saying is; your wealth should not be a further obstacle to our right to housing...

Because of your ambition to own five, ten, twenty, or even hundreds of detached houses, mansions, waterfront residences, apartments, and shops, real estate prices are rising uncontrollably.

While you “ultra-rich” compete with each other to buy property, we cannot even find a shack to put a roof over our heads.

If the price of a two-bedroom apartment in an average neighborhood in Istanbul starts at 30 million liras and the rent starts at 30 thousand liras, the fundamental reason for this is your ambition to “own more.”

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Don't let anyone come out and tell me “This is against the law” or something similar...

Just as the government finds the right to “seize fields that have not been cultivated for two consecutive years and hand them over to others under the guise of rent,” what I am proposing is perfectly feasible.

The right to housing is a person's most important right and can never be left to the mercy of some speculators.

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I am calling out to President Erdoğan, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, and all politicians:

The gap between the average wage in our country and the prices of housing for sale or rent has widened so much that, from this point on, it has become a dream for low-income earners to even rent, let alone own, these properties.

The only way to solve this is through restricting the buying and selling of housing and tying it to certain conditions...

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I am looking for a brave politician who will implement this proposal, or at least open it up for discussion.

Is there one? We shall wait and see...