Turkey is building hundreds of thousands of homes each year, yet ownership is slipping further out of reach for many residents, as investors compete for property that ordinary households struggle to afford.
By the Editorial Team of TLF
Photo: The source
In an interview with Özkan Öztaş, published by soL on 5 October, sociologist Melih Yeşilbağ argues that the country's housing crisis stems from homes becoming investment assets. Construction alone cannot resolve it, he says.
Yeşilbağ says Turkey produced roughly 700,000 homes annually over the past decade. During periods of cheap credit, wealthy buyers and companies moved into property, helping drive the sharp price and rent increases seen from 2021. Housing delivered higher real returns than foreign currencies, equities or bank deposits between 2019 and 2023, he says.
He also points to foreign demand. More than 425,000 homes were sold to overseas buyers between 2013 and 2024, according to the interview. In 2022, their share of purchases reached 27% in Antalya.
The Pressure on Household Budgets
Official figures show the strain. TurkStat's 2024 Poverty and Living Conditions Statistics put the share of people living in their own homes at 56.1%, down slightly from the previous year, while 28% lived in rented accommodation. Another 15% occupied homes they did not own without paying rent.
Household budgets were already stretched. The same survey found that 13.6% of households considered their housing expenses a heavy burden, while 71.2% reported some burden. Just 15.2% said these costs caused none. Heating was another pressure: 15.1% could not afford to keep their homes adequately warm, and 26.8% could not meet unexpected expenses. Such figures leave little room for saving towards a deposit. Basic food costs also competed for income: 39.3% of households could not afford meat, chicken or fish on every second day.
Vienna's Public Housing Alternative
Vienna offers a different approach. The Austrian capital's official social housing portal lists 220,000 municipal flats and 200,000 subsidised cooperative homes. Around half its residents live in subsidised housing. The city says retaining this stock has helped restrain rents across the wider market.
Vienna's programme grew from the housing shortages that followed the First World War, when overcrowded homes exposed workers to disease. Its council approved a plan for 25,000 flats over five years in the early 1920s and has maintained its commitment to affordable housing across subsequent decades.
Yeşilbağ criticises Turkey's reliance on debt-financed homeownership through TOKİ, the state housing agency, arguing that public policy should curb investment-driven demand and provide lasting protection for low-income residents.