Some 96,000 landlord-tenant disputes settled via mediation

ISTANBUL

More than 96,000 disputes between landlords and tenants were settled through the mandatory mediation scheme, data from the Justice Ministry have shown.

Mandatory mediation for rentals was introduced in September last year. Over the past 9 months, mediators have received a total of 191,276 disputes over rents and managed to resolve 96,461 cases.

Under this scheme, landlords and occupants should first seek to find a solution to their disagreements through mediators. Only if this attempt fails, then they can take their cases to court.

Landlords and tenants mostly come to loggerheads over rent hikes.

The government in June 2022 introduced a 25 percent cap on rent increases. This cap will expire as of July 2. Once the cap expires, the rent increase should be indexed to the 12-month average consumer price inflation.

“I cannot say that the rent cap was really implemented,” said Neşecan Çekici, the president of the Real Estate Investors Association (GYODER), adding that such interventions cause more problems in the housing market.

Many homes remained empty and people refrained from buying real estate because of the limit imposed on rent hikes, according to Çekici.

She noted that home ownership in Türkiye has been on the decline over the past couple of years and more and more people are living in rented homes.

GYODER proposes a model which foresees public and private sector cooperation to increase home supply, Çekici said.

“Under this model, public lands could be leased to private companies which build rental homes on those land plots,” she explained, adding that if this model is implemented rent prices may decline by 50 percent.