Turkish Airlines and Emlak Konut to build 10,000 houses near new Istanbul airport

ISTANBUL

Turkish Airlines has signed an agreement with a key Turkish property developer Emlak Konut to build 10,000 houses in the environs of the new Istanbul airport and the Canal Istanbul route in order to provide housing to its employees after the Istanbul Atatürk Airport closes on Oct. 29. 

“It is not an easy change for the Turkish Airlines family who is used to living around Atatürk Airport. We could face distance problems due to this change. In order to reduce these problems to the lowest levels, it is important to decrease the cost of moving for Turkish Airlines employees to a minimum and provide them a social service,” said İlker Aycı, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines at the signing ceremony held at the headquarters of the company in Istanbul on May 29.

The houses will be built on an area of 3.6 million square meters in Istanbul’s district of Arnavutköy, 12 kilometers away from the new airport, which will start operating on Oct. 29. The mentioned area also lies in the vicinity of Canal Istanbul, a canal megaproject that will connect the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea through the European side of Istanbul. The Northern Marmara Highway, which connects the new airport with the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge on the Bosphorus, is within a distance of 11 kilometers to the housing site.

“This will be an exemplary city planning project. Fifty percent of the area that has been abandoned will be a new national park within the estate,” said Murat Kurum, General Director of Emlak Konut Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

Construction will begin on Oct. 29 and the first phase is planned to be completed in 16 months, according to Kurum’s remarks.

Turkey’s flag carrier company will own half of the properties in the project.