Home > Economy News > Housing sales are falling, the housing crisis is deepening

Housing sales are falling, the housing crisis is deepening

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Deputy Secretary-General and Urban Planner Buğra Gökçe made a series of statements regarding the housing crisis. Gökçe stated, "The housing crisis we are experiencing is about to turn into a humanitarian crisis that will affect our national security."

12punto

Buğra Gökçe evaluated his statements regarding the housing crisis on his social media account.

Gökçe's statements are as follows:

Housing sales fell by 8.7 percent in October compared to the same month of the previous year. Despite this, according to Endeksa data, average housing prices in Turkey increased by 103 percent in 1 year. While the increase was 89.6 percent in Istanbul, housing prices rose by 121.1 percent in Ankara, 98 percent in Izmir, 91 percent in Antalya, 74.7 percent in Adana, 110 percent in Muğla, and 99.3 percent in Trabzon.

As housing prices increased, housing rental prices also showed an increase. In Turkey, rental prices increased by 127.8 percent in 1 year. The increase was 91 percent in Istanbul, 178 percent in Ankara, and 131 percent in Izmir. Today, the average rent for a 100 m2 home in Istanbul is 17,111 liras. This means that a minimum wage earner can only cover 67 percent of the housing rent with their entire salary. The rate is 82 percent in Ankara and 75 percent in Izmir.

While prices have increased to this extent, housing loans have also increased. Today, the average price of a 100 m2 home in Turkey is 3 million 40 thousand liras. If a 2.5 million lira loan with a 120-month maturity is taken from public banks, the installment amount rises to 98,258 liras per month. Therefore, 90 percent of Turkey does not have the means to repay such a loan.

A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IS GROWING EVERY DAY

Due to the rise in housing prices and housing rental costs, employees and laborers cannot become homeowners. They are becoming propertyless. While they sell their homes due to increasing needs, the sold homes are bought by foreigners or high-capital owners who already own more than one home. For this reason, the homeownership rate has fallen from 73 percent in 2002 to 56 percent.

While our citizens are becoming propertyless, new employees, minimum wage earners, and workers no longer have the opportunity to own a home. The average monthly household income in Turkey is 8,201 liras. The average household's 1-year income is barely enough to pay 1 month's installment of a housing loan.

As deep dispossession increases poverty, especially new employees, minimum wage earners, public servants, and wage earners no longer have the opportunity to find shelter in metropolitan cities. Forget about buying a house, even renting a house is becoming increasingly impossible. That is why migration from Istanbul to Anatolia is accelerating.

The housing crisis in metropolitan cities has two aspects. First, as those employed in critical sectors such as production and services cannot make a living with the income they earn, they migrate to other cities, while our important sectors that create employment and production are also facing a serious employment crisis that will affect production. Since the increase in costs also increases inflation and average living expenses, and public administration does not protect the rights of laborers with correct policies, Turkey's production power or competitive power is decreasing. Just as in the meat, milk, egg, cheese, vegetable, and fruit sectors, price increases due to production decreases in other sectors also await us in the coming period.

The increase in housing prices forces employees, laborers, and retirees to live in homes with high disaster risk. It condemns them to live in their coffins. Those who cannot move to new homes continue to stay in high-risk homes even though they know they could die. This makes our cities' disaster resilience weak. In the event of a disaster, 4.5 million of our citizens in Istanbul alone will face a housing crisis. We are facing a major national security problem that will even affect our country's national sovereignty.

The housing crisis is even more brutal, especially for retirees and those working in precarious jobs. Unfortunately, we see in the national press that an increasing number of our elderly citizens are being evicted from their homes every day because they cannot pay their rent. If this increase continues, Turkey will face a terrible humanitarian crisis where people who are homeless and have nowhere to go live.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

We have been writing and saying this for a while. The state needs to intervene in the housing market with rational and scientific methods. Until now, institutions like TOKİ and Emlak Konut have preferred to produce luxury housing and transfer rent rather than producing social housing. However, the right to housing in the Constitution gives the state the duty to protect the right to housing by taking steps according to population growth and needs. We need a multi-dimensional, planned, programmed, and rational social housing production.

We expect decision-makers in authorized positions to put everything aside in the face of this picture and act with a spirit of mobilization by coordinating with local governments and civil society through participatory and transparent processes. We must find and implement solutions before a more terrible picture emerges.