Special real estate funds to help reduce home prices: Şimşek

ANKARA

Authorities are working on the establishment of special real estate investment funds that will increase home supply and help reduce property prices, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said.

“We are making arrangements for the establishment of Project Real Estate Investment Funds. Thus, we will contribute to financing of urban transformation and increasing housing supply,” Şimşek wrote on the social media platform X.

In this way, housing and rent price increases will decrease and housing accessibility will become easier for all segments of society, he said.

Şimşek’s comments came amid expectations that the measure which limits rent increases to a maximum of 25 percent is not likely to be extended once again when it expires in July.

The cap was first introduced in June 2022, after Türkiye had experienced exorbitant rent increases.

Several data in recent weeks have shown that both rent and homes prices declined in near terms.

The Central Bank’s Residential Property Price index (RPPI) rose 52 percent in March, easing from the 58 percent annual rise in the previous month.

In real terms, the index declined by 9.8 percent in March, while the RPPI advanced 1.2 percent month-on-month, slowing from 2.2 percent in February.

A study from Istanbul-based Bahçeşehir University’s Economic and Social Research Center (BETAM) also showed that in real terms, adjusted for inflation, average rent prices declined by 8 percent in March compared with the same month of 2023.