Türkiye’s Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ) completed 10,539 social housing units in 19 provinces in September, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change announced on Oct. 15.
The finished homes are spread across a wide map: Afyonkarahisar, Ankara, Ardahan, Aydın, Bolu, Çankırı, Elazığ, Erzurum, Hatay, Istanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Malatya, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon and Yozgat. According to the announcement, TOKİ had completed a total of 83,504 social housing units in 58 provinces as the final quarter of the year began.
What TOKİ is and who these homes are for
TOKİ is the state body that plans, finances and builds subsidized housing in Türkiye, usually in large estates on the edges of cities. Its social housing programs target low- and middle-income households who do not already own a home, and units are typically allocated by public lottery rather than sold on the open market.
Buyers usually pay a small down payment and then repay the balance in long-term, fixed installments through partner state banks. Under the current 500,000-unit social housing drive, which TOKİ calls the "Housing Project of the Century," buyers pay 10% up front and can spread the rest over as many as 240 months. Lotteries for that project have been completed in all 81 provinces, including draws for 100,000 homes in Istanbul.
Several provinces on the September list, including Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya, were among those hit hardest by the February 2023 earthquakes, where state-built housing has been central to reconstruction.
Recent handovers
The ministry has also been publicizing individual handovers. In Kocaeli’s Derince district, 291 units in the second stage of the Sopalı neighbourhood project were delivered between Sept. 28 and Oct. 14. The ministry said the mix included 10 one-bedroom, 219 two-bedroom and 62 three-bedroom flats, built on raft foundations using tunnel formwork, a reinforced-concrete method widely used in Türkiye for earthquake resistance.
In Yozgat’s Boğazlıyan district, 317 social housing units in the Bahariye neighbourhood were handed to owners between Sept. 28 and Oct. 9.
Why it matters for the wider market
TOKİ’s output is closely watched because new private-sector construction has slowed sharply under high interest rates and rising building costs, while rents in large cities remain elevated.
For foreign residents, TOKİ social housing is generally not an option: eligibility is limited to Turkish citizens who meet income and ownership criteria. However, the agency’s pipeline affects supply in many districts where expats rent or buy, especially on the outskirts of Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir.
Sources
- TOKİ’den Eylül’de 19 şehirde 10 bini aşkın konut üretimi! (Emlakkulisi)
- TOKİ’den konut teslimi bekleyenlere müjde! (Emlakkulisi)
- TOKİ sözleşmesi ne zaman ve nasıl yapılacak? (CNN Türk)
Photo: mehmet temizyürek / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
