Turkey's housing crisis: Prices in Istanbul go head-to-head with Miami

Duvar English

Turkish citizens are outraged at soaring real estate prices in the country, pointing out that the situation has come to a point where it is now possible to buy a house in Miami for the price of a luxurious apartment flat in Istanbul's Bağcılar district.

Turkey's dictionary-based discussion forum Ekşi Sözlük has compared the housing prices in Bağcılar with those in Miami under a report titled “Selling an apartment flat in Bağcılar and buying a house in Miami with the money coming from there: Now it is possible.”

The report gave an example of an online advertisement on Sahibinden.com in which a real estate agent is seeking a buyer for an apartment flat in Bağcılar for 6.5 million liras, i.e. approximately $430,000.

The same report also shared the prices of houses put on sale on the U.S. real estate search engine Zillow. Accordingly, there are houses that sell for from $299,000 to $370,000 in Miami.

Property prices have increased by 106 percent in Istanbul in the past year. Builders cite rising input costs, the lira's depreciation as well as thin supply in the housing market as reasons for the surging prices.

The construction index has soared 102% year-on-year in March, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

To address the housing crisis, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 9 announced three separate loan packages. The new package offers first-time buyers much cheaper credit. However, experts have warned that cheap mortgages will further deteriorate inflation and will not provide a solution for surging house prices.