Turkey considering rent price cap to curb soaring prices

Click to read the article in Turkish

To discuss the sharp increase in housing and rent prices, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Trade held a closed meeting yesterday (May 24).

Officials from the four discussed a new regulation to introduce a ceiling rent price, as well as other measures to curb the soaring prices.
Rent prices have more than doubled in a year across Turkey, with the increase rate exceeding 200 percent in some places.

CLICK - Increase in housing prices hit a new record-high in Turkey 

CLICK - Average rent price in İstanbul exceeds minimum wage

CLICK - Only two percent of rental flats in İstanbul 'affordable and livable'

Minister of Environment Murat Kurum, Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ, Deputy Minister of Treasury and Finance Yunus Elitaş, and bureaucrats from the Ministry of Trade have attended the meeting.

The main issues discussed during the two-hour meeting were as follows, according to reports:

- Punishment of those who increase rent prices more than the Consumer Price Index.

- Building of public housing by the Housing Development Agency (TOKİ), municipalities, and some companies.

-Ceiling prices in housing in big cities.

-Increase in the rent prices of the tenants who reside in the same house for up to five years according to the Consumer Price Index.

The new regulations will be reportedly finalized and announced to the public after they are presented to the President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (TY/TB/VK)