Turkish main opposition leader vows to ban house sales to foreigners

Duvar English 

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said that the sale of houses to foreigners will be banned for a period of five years if his party comes to power in the upcoming elections.

In a series of tweets on Feb. 21, he wrote that the ban will stay in execution until the house prices fall.

“They (referring to the government) have set up a system that is insulting to its citizens in the country of earthquakes and where millions are homeless. When we come (to power), we will prevent the sale of houses to foreigners for five years and that ban will not be lifted unless the prices fall. We have so many things to correct,” he wrote.

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the value-added tax exemption for foreigners buying houses in foreign currency.

“In the sale of new houses to our citizens, the value-added tax is 8 percent for places up to 150 square meters and 18 percent for the parts exceeding this square meter. Foreigners on the other hand are exempted from the value-added tax with the condition that they bring this money as foreign currency to the country. Foreigners are conducting high purchases with this advantage and pulling the house prices up,” he wrote.

Following two major earthquakes in southeastern Turkey on Feb. 6, the country’s housing problem worsened, as thousands of people have left the region in search of safer places. Immigration to the western parts of the country has, in a very short period of time, spiked the rental prices further amid an already existing housing shortage.