Trade minister says Turkish house prices rose about 23%, below 29% inflation, credits listing and payment rules

Türkiye’s Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Wednesday that house prices have risen more slowly than consumer prices over the past year, and credited two government systems that now sit between sellers, agents and buyers for keeping the market in check.

Speaking at the opening of the academic year at İstanbul Gelişim University’s Avcılar campus, Bolat said housing prices had gone up by about 23% year on year and car prices by about 22%, while headline inflation stood at around 29%, according to Anadolu Agency. In real terms, that means the average home has become cheaper over the period, even though prices in lira continue to climb.

Listing checks and secure payments

Bolat attributed the slower rise to the Electronic Listing Verification System (EİDS) and the Secure Payment System (GÖS), the latter developed together with Türkiye’s notaries. He said the measures had held back price increases in both property and automotive sales.

EİDS requires that a property advertised on classified sites is verified against the title deed (tapu) records, so that only the owner or an agent authorised by the owner can publish the listing. The aim is to remove fake, duplicate and inflated ads that can distort asking prices. We reported earlier on how the government has tightened listing rules for foreign property owners and on Istanbul estate agents’ calls to curb brokers without offices.

GÖS is designed to hold the buyer’s money in a secure account until the title deed transfer is completed, a step meant to cut fraud in cash-heavy property deals. Its mandatory use in property sales has been postponed to Dec. 1.

Bolat said nearly 100 regulations had been introduced during his three and a half years in office, covering sectors including real estate, automotive, jewellery, retail and fruit and vegetable trade, with administrative fines for those who do not comply.

What it means for buyers

The minister’s figures are broadly in line with recent data pointing to a real-terms decline in Turkish home prices, as covered in our report on house prices rising 23% in August. For foreign buyers who earn in euros, pounds or dollars, price growth below inflation has generally been offset or outpaced by the lira’s depreciation, which affects how affordable a purchase looks in hard currency.

Buyers should still budget for transaction costs such as the title deed fee, which are explained in our guide to the costs of buying a home in Türkiye.

Bolat also said consumer arbitration boards had settled about 690,000 disputes worth 14 billion lira in the first nine months of the year without going to court, and that artisans had received 883.5 billion lira in interest-subsidised loans over the past 23 years.

Sources

• Ticaret Bakanı Bolat: Hem otomotivde hem de konut fiyatlarında (artış) manşet enflasyon oranının altında (Anadolu Ajansı)
• Bakan Bolat’tan otomobil ve konut fiyatları açıklaması (Bigpara/Hürriyet)

Photo: Europäische Kommission – Audiovisueller Dienst, Claudio C… / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons