Report: Only two percent of rental flats in İstanbul 'affordable and livable'

Photo: AA

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While rent prices have increased as much as 40 percent over the past year in İstanbul, only a small portion of the flats that are currently rented out are livable, according to a recent report.

The Center for Spatial Justice (MAD) examined the rental flats in the city according to seven criteria based on the UN's definition of "adequate housing."

Out of 38,829 rental homes in İstanbul on sahibinden.com, one of the most popular real estate websites in Turkey, only about 800, or two percent, meet the criteria, according to the MAD report.

The criteria were about the rent price (less than 1,500 lira, or 30 percent of the annual average disposable household income in Turkey), size (80 square meters at least), building age (10 years at most, buildings in compliance with the 2008 earthquake code), the number of floors (one to five), safe heating, flats with a balcony and empty flats.

"Even though the number of rental homes seems high, it gradually decreases as we select search filters. In particular, the threshold criteria where dramatic decreases occurred were price, size and age of the building.

"When we set the price limit of 1,500 lira, the number of ads decreased to 8,489. When we set the size limit, it decreased to 5,181. When we set the building age limit, it decreased to 1,963. When we set the limit on the number of floors, it decreased to 800s."

Three peripheral districts, Silivri, Sancaktepe and Pendik, have the highest number of adequate rental homes, the report noted. There are no adequate homes in the districts of Princes' Islands (Adalar), Bakırköy, Bayrampaşa, Esenler, Güngören, Sarıyer, Üsküdar, Zeytinburnu.

The three districts where the rental prices for adequate homes are highest are Beşiktaş, Sarıyer and Bakırköy.

One reason for the low number of livable flats was that rents in newer buildings are well over 1,500 lira, says the report. (HA/VK)