- Aug 26, 2022
- Reading time: 3 minutes
New Move to Booster Housing Supply: Offices Turn Into Housing!
New steps are being taken to prevent the growth in the housing market, which has experienced rapid increases in the last year. One of these steps is the conversion of about 1.5 million square meters of office in Istanbul and 4 million square meters across the country, which cannot be rented or sold due to surplus supply. Görkem Ögüt, Co-Founder and General Manager of Endeksa, stated that the step taken is correct, but the number of buildings issued with a building permit decreased by 7.5% and the number of apartments by 15.3%, stably new explained that steps should be taken.
The supply and demand balance, which has become fragile starting in 2018, is cited as one of the main reasons for the rapid price increases in the housing market. The supply, which does not meet the increasing demand, causes prices to rise steadily, housing becomes more of an investment element than a purpose of use. The new regulation, which has been spoken for some time in the real estate sector and has begun to be embodied by the ministry's explanation, is published in the Official Gazette and 'Planned Areas Zoning Regulation on Amending Amendments It was brought to life with the temporary additional clause brought to the Regulation. According to the regulation, about 1.5 million square meters of office will be converted into residential housing in Istanbul, which cannot be rented or sold due to surplus supply, and 4 million square meters throughout the country.
The average sales price per square meter of housing throughout Turkey is 10 thousand 683 TL
According to the Endeksa data, the annual value increase in housing sales prices in Turkey as of July was 195%, while housing prices increased by 365% in the last 4 years. The average housing square meter sales price in Turkey reached 10 thousand 683 TL, the average housing price reached 1 million 410 thousand 156 TL. When we look at the change in value of rents, we face a similar situation, the average rent across Turkey is 5,000 396 TL, rents have increased by 153% in the last 1 year by 250 in the last 4 years.
The first official step was taken to transform offices into housing
In order to control the increases, the first official step was taken to transform the offices into housing, which the real estate sector also proposed as a solution proposal. The process of transformation of offices into housing begins with the temporary supplement “Regulation on Amendments to Planned Areas Zoning Regulation”. According to the provisional additional clause “Application Zoning Plans “Trade + Housing” in areas designated as “Trade + Housing”, building permit for office/office purposes was issued prior to the date of entry into force of this article and started its construction or building permit for modification of the purpose of use so that the residential use rate does not exceed 80% with registration to be concluded by 1/7/2023 in buildings where the permission to use has been issued can be edited.” With this arrangement, there will be 10,000 new housing supply in Istanbul and 40 thousand new housing in Turkey.
New steps need to be taken steadily
Görkem Ögüt, Co-Founder and General Manager of Endeksa, who shared his views on the process, said, “Housing supply is still having difficulty meeting the ever-rising demand. Compared to the same period last year, the number of buildings issued by municipalities decreased by 7.5%, number of apartments by 15.3% and area area by 7.8% in the second quarter of 2022. Steps such as converting offices into housing are important in terms of the fact that its market fits into a balance when we also consider the current industry dynamics. Social housing production and such transformation steps are needed to prevent exorbitants in housing. I find the change in the regulation positive for the first stage, I think that new steps should be taken steadily to rapidly increase the supply of housing,” he said.
