İYİ Party leader criticizes price hikes in housing

ANKARA

Turkish citizens are facing difficulty purchasing or renting houses due to high costs as increased demand by foreigners is accelerating market value, İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has said, criticizing the record increase in the cost of living and housing prices.

Foreigners bought 59,000 houses last year, and this demand also raised rents to “astronomical levels,” she said, addressing her party’s lawmakers at parliament.

“Turkish citizens cannot live in the most beautiful houses in the most beautiful districts today. Turkish citizens cannot take a vacation on the beaches. Our young people cannot travel within their country. Only foreign nationals do all this,” she stated.

“Students, civil servants, workers cannot find a residency. Rising rents are pushing landlords to evict their tenants. Our people, in a panic, are trying to solve their housing problems,” Akşener explained.

The economic model of the government does not work, and the people are suffering from price hikes, Akşener said.

Reiterating her call for early elections, Akşener said: “The election is no longer a choice for our nation and our country, it is an obligation.”

The country has no problems that cannot be solved, she said. The ruling party “of course, will do its best to leave the election to 2023,” she said, claiming that the government would try to “distract with various artificial agendas.”

Despite the change in the electoral law, the ruling party will inevitably lose the next elections, she added. Her party will come to the rule and solve both the inflation and the interest rate problem within 12 months at the latest, Akşener stated.