CHP leader vows to ban house sales to foreigners for five years

ANKARA

The foreigners will not be allowed to buy properties in Türkiye for a five-year period in a bid to stabilize house prices, the main opposition leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has vowed.

“When we come to power, we will ban property sales to the foreigners for five years and we won’t lift it before house prices go down,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on his Twitter account late on Feb. 21.

Taking advantage of the devalued Turkish national currency, many foreigners, particularly Russians, Iraqis, Iranians, German and others have been purchasing properties across the country, especially in Antalya, the country’s most well-known resort province. 

“The foreigners are exempted from the value added tax on the condition that they buy houses with foreign currency,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, recalling that Turks have to pay eight percent tax for a house smaller than 150 square meters and 18 percent for bigger than this. “The foreigners take advantage of this and increase the house prices,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

“In the country of earthquakes where millions are homeless, they built a system at the expense of humiliating its own citizens. This is such a vile system,” he noted.

Two devastating earthquakes on Feb. 6 did have left more than 40,000 people dead and millions of people homeless in 11 provinces in the southeastern Anatolian region. Many survivors are rushing to migrate to other parts of the country which is causing a new increase in the house prices.