Minister Özhaseki announces: '28 million 318 thousand square meters of land sold to foreigners'

CHP Niğde Deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer, addressing Minister Özhaseki during the Plan and Budget Committee meeting held last month for the 2024 budget negotiations at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, stated that significant land sales were being made to foreigners and expressed the following:

“Significant amounts of land are being sold to foreigners in our country, and these are productive agricultural lands. When they buy the land, well water or similar issues are not a problem; they find water and gain access to all kinds of facilities, but while our own people and farmers own land, the water problem and well water issues persist. We are asking; you provide us with answers based on the data from the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, but the figures in these responses are constantly changing. How much land in total has been sold to foreigners in Turkey right now? Answers are given by breaking them down into walnuts, apples, grapes, etc., but there is no total; let us see the data in terms of figures. Why are foreigners buying so much agricultural land, and why are the most productive agricultural lands being sold to foreigners?”

PROVIDED A WRITTEN RESPONSE

Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Mehmet Özhaseki provided a written response to the questions posed orally by CHP Niğde Deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer.

According to Minister Özhaseki's written response, he stated that as of November 14, 2023, foreign natural persons have acquired 17 thousand 76 main immovable properties, including plots, land, fields, gardens, etc., with a total surface area of 28 million 318 thousand 836 square meters, through sales and similar means across our country.

Minister Özhaseki also used the expression, “The variability in the responses given to parliamentary questions stems from the fact that the information is retrieved instantly and actively from live data, and changes due to new acquisitions and disposals (cancellations) in every new query.”

"LIMITATIONS SHOULD BE IMPOSED ON LAND SALES"

Regarding Özhaseki's response, CHP Niğde Deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer commented:

"Foreigners prefer the most productive areas for agriculture, such as plots, land, gardens, etc. They choose lands that do not have irrigation water problems and provide high-yield products. I have also submitted a legislative proposal to limit the sale of agricultural land to foreign nationals. Land sales to foreign nationals must certainly be tied to certain conditions. In this context, our own farmers should be provided with the necessary support, and agricultural lands should be increased to ensure that our country's farmers remain in agriculture. Furthermore, in recent years, public lands in our country have been changing hands through privatization. Treasury lands are being offered for sale. In this process, it must be ensured that the sold lands are not used for non-agricultural purposes.“

News Source: 12punto