State firm launches 9 bln lira home projects

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

This photo shows houses built by state-run TOKİ in the eastern province of Van.

The value of housing projects launched by Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) this year reached 9 billion Turkish Liras, the president of the state-run body has said.

“The housing and social reinforcement projects in 310 construction sites were worth 9 billion liras in 2012. This means 44,000 houses in total,” Ahmet Haluk Karabel told Anatolia news agency in an interview yesterday.

Karabel stated that 98.5 percent of the investments were for social housing and the rest for profit, adding that TOKİ is to balance housing prices in Turkey and that the administration carries out these projects without any financing from the Treasury.

“We initiated the tenders for 95 schools, three sports halls, three stadiums, 27 commerce centers, 60 places of worship, 35 hospitals, seven family health centers, three nurseries, 59 police stations and six public buildings.”

TOKİ’s president stressed that the administration opted for approximately 21,000 housing projects mostly in eastern regions. The state-run property developer also constructed 15,341 disaster homes after the earthquake in the eastern province of Van.

Karabel announced future projects for 2013 that aim to construct a total of 237,000 houses, including 76 hospitals, 41 student residences, 34 guesthouses, 108 public buildings, 119 schools and 114 sports halls.

TOKİ has also set aside part of their budget for the restoration of cultural assets and university buildings, Karabel said.