Erdoğan unveils social housing project amid record-high housing prices

Photo: AA

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has revealed a new social housing project amid rising housing prices.

The project named "My First Home, My First Workplace" has a budget of about 900 billion lira (1 US dollar = 18.25 Turkish lira), Erdoğan said at a ceremony for the project at the Beştepe Nation's Congress Center in Ankara, the capital.

With the project, the government plans to build 500,000 housing units and 50,000 workplaces between 2023 and 2028, said the president.

Some 50,000 housing units will be built in İstanbul, the country's largest city, 18,000 will be built in Ankara, and 12,500 will be built in İzmir, he said.

Two-bedroom apartments will be sold at 608,000 lira, and three-bedroom apartments will be sold at 850,000 lira with 240 monthly installments of 2,280 lira and 3,187 lira per month.

Anyone with a household income lower than 18,000 lira in İstanbul and 16,000 lira elsewhere can apply to the project.

Housing prices

The project comes amid an excessive increase in housing and rental prices throughout the country, especially in the big cities.

According to the latest Housing Price Index released by the Central Bank, housing prices rose by 160 percent in June compared to a year earlier.

The increase rate was 184 percent in İstanbul, and 165 percent in Ankara.

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(AS/VK)