Rent prices rise 159 percent in October

ISTANBUL

The average increase in rent prices across Türkiye was 159 percent in October compared to the same month of last year, according to a recent study.

The study, which was carried out jointly by the Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM) at Bahçeşehir University and the online classified advertisements platform sahibinden.com, showed that the average rental price rose to 62.2 Turkish Lira per square meter.

The annual increase was 145.6 percent in Istanbul, the country’s most populous city, and rental prices leaped 168.4 percent annually in Ankara. The increase was 158.6 percent in İzmir, the third largest city.

The average price of rental houses was 88.8 Liras per square meter in Istanbul, 42.9 liras in Ankara and 62.1 liras in İzmir.

The annual increase in rent prices, however, eased from 166.4 percent in September.

Meanwhile, some landlords are asking potential tenants to find a cosigner, preferably someone employed as a civil servant, in order to sign the lease contract, making it more difficult for people to find a house to rent at a time when costs are already too high.

Landlords prefer civil servants because they have a secure income, paid regularly.

Such demands are appearing in ads placed on online real estate platforms.

“Landlords who could not collect rents from tenants in the past are resorting to this method. Some landlords insist that the cosigner must be a civil servant,” said a real estate agent in Ankara, adding that seven out of 10 people, who are looking for a house, return empty-handed since they could not find a cosigner.

In the face of rocketing property prices and rents, the government recently launched a massive social housing project to bring house prices under control.

The “My First Home My First Workplace Project,” announced last month, includes the development of a total of 500,000 houses in all 81 provinces of the country and 50,000 workplaces.