Call from IMM Urban Planning Group President Ali Kurt regarding exorbitant housing prices

The second anniversary of the February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş is approaching. As the anniversary of the disaster nears, the transformation of risky structures in Istanbul remains on the agenda. Millions of citizens living in risky structures in the mega-city want to live in earthquake-resistant buildings, but exorbitant housing prices make homeownership impossible.

Ali Kurt, who served for many years as the General Manager of KİPTAŞ, one of the important subsidiaries of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), and now serves as the President of the IMM Urban Planning Group, made statements on the subject. Ali Kurt emphasized that it is not very possible for a minimum wage earner to access a home in an inflationary environment. Kurt said, "Today, the unit cost per square meter of construction is 27 thousand TL; in other words, a minimum wage earner cannot cover 80 percent of the cost of a construction. Unfortunately, this figure does not include financing costs or land costs," he said.

"REPAYMENT OF A 1 MILLION TL LOAN IS 3.6 MILLION IN 10 YEARS"

Explaining the situation with a striking example, Kurt said, "When we consider the financing cost, if our citizens want to use a loan from banks today, they pay back 3.6 times the money they used. In other words, a citizen who takes out a 1 million TL loan pays it back as 3.6 million TL in 10 years. When we evaluate this data, it is not possible for our citizens living on minimum wage to access housing under today's conditions," he said.

LISTED HIS PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

IMM Urban Planning Group President Ali Kurt also listed his proposed solutions. Kurt said, "Construction unit square meter costs exceeded the minimum wage after 2022. Under today's conditions, if we cannot bring construction costs below the minimum wage, we will have a very, very hard time helping our citizens acquire housing. What needs to be done for this is to offer different incentives and provide different tax advantages, especially to producers in the construction sector. However, we propose to carry this out only within the scope of projects to be produced for citizens who do not own a home and who live in risky structures," he said.

News Source: 12punto