The Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum announced that the 25 percent limit on rent increases will continue.
Currently, the official inflation figure announced by TUIK (TURKSTATS) is over 50 percent, let's put other price increases aside, the cost of housing production has increased by about 130 percent in a year.
Accordingly, the rise in housing prices is evident. Even the state's revaluation rate is 123 percent.
Due to the 25 percent increase, landlords and tenants were brought face to face.
We talked about this contradiction with Nizamettin Aşa, President of Istanbul Chamber of Realtors.
President Aşa pointed out that not only the tenants but also the landlords are the victims in the inflationary environment.
"We said that it was impracticable at that time," Aşa said.
Aşa, noted that this practice does not respond to current market realities.
"Inflation reached 80 percent last year. In this inflationary environment, it is necessary to look at the issue of limiting housing prices to 25 percent from two perspectives. There is a very large segment of people who are oppressed in an inflationary environment. On the other hand, there is a very important group that lives only on rental income. The man worked all his life, bought a house. Maybe he's making a living off the rent of this house. The 25 percent situation is a big problem due to the suddenly increasing costs, inflation and the house they provide for their livelihood. This is a very clear truth. At that time, we stated that this was not a very viable situation. As a matter of fact, we invited people, tenants and landlords to this: We said compromise. A statutory right of 25%. But there is also the reality of the market itself. In our call for reconciliation by the tenants to the landlords, we advised the landlords to 'do not make an exorbitant increase' and to the tenants to be stubborn, saying 'I will not go above this price'. Later, our state introduced the mediation system to solve this problem between tenants and landlords," Aşa added.
“HOME RENTS DROPPED IN HIGHLY POPULAR LOCATIONS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE”
"When you looked at the market, I had a foresight, when we looked at last year. Prices will drop 25-30 percent in January, in case there is no extraordinary situation. But unfortunately something extraordinary happened. But my prediction actually worked, there was an increase in prices, an increase in rental numbers, a partial decrease of 15-20 percent at the end of 2022. Even in areas that were very popular after the earthquake, rental prices dropped by 25 percent. We've seen it, we've experienced it. Prices have also increased in some areas. The disclosure of 25 percent is a good thing for high-price homeowners. But it is not a good thing for landlords who have previously rented their homes at low prices. Not many people do this anyway. The number of people who apply 25 percent and go to court for this reason is very small. Generally, landlords and tenants agree on one point. As I said, the tenant does not get stubborn, not necessarily I say, 'I will do 25 percent'. The owner does not insist that he will do 200-300 percent. I believe that this will happen. Okay, you have set a limit of 25 percent, but this is suitable for houses that have been rented at high prices recently. The man has already bought a house worth 2 thousand-3 thousand liras for 10-15 TL, it is right for this. But it is good for a tenant living in a house with less than 10 thousand liras for 2 thousand liras, but this situation is unfair for the landlord. In this case, the market will adjust its own balance. We, as real estate agents, have been doing reconciliation for a year now. I think this situation will continue like this," Aşa stated.