Kuwaiti gov’t to inspect Turkish building firms

Gülistan Alagöz ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

The Kuwait Real Estate Summit, postponed to an undetermined date, was expected to host more than 500 Arab investors and 40 Turkish firms. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

The Kuwait Real Estate Summit, slated to be organized by Turkish and Dubai-based companies on Sept. 17-18, has been postponed to an undetermined date. Given that some Turkish companies didn’t fulfill promises made, the Kuwaiti government has made the decision to investigate participating Turkish firms.

Turkish Inrema and Dubai-based AYN Group organized a real estate summit that was set to take place in Kuwait between Sept. 17 and Sept. 18. However, the Kuwaiti government has launched an investigation into the Turkish firms, which attended the expo in recent years, over the claims that they caused “house victims.” The government will request documents from the companies in order to question both their qualifications and reliability.

The sales made during expos between 2009 and 2011 damaged Turkey’s image, said Halit Demir, the chairman of Demir İnşaat, one of the companies planning to attend the event. “Kuwaiti people that made payments weren’t able to have their houses built on time. Three to five companies were the cause of this situation. While we were selling 10 houses to Kuwait a month, this fell to 1. We, as a Turkish construction business, have lost Kuwait,” he said. 

Demir also noted while some companies didn’t deliver the houses, some sold houses in suburban areas while misrepresenting them as being located in the city center.

‘Home-buyers couldn’t contact companies’

The companies that called for the suspension of bankruptcy in Turkey also made foreign customers abroad suffer, said İbrahim Babacan, the chairman of Babacan Yapı. He stated that they received complaints from Iraq and Dubai along the lines of, “We bought houses in Turkey but we can’t reach the company.” 

Babacan recommended that the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning should develop a system to audit construction companies. He also said the organizing company said that the Kuwaiti government’s investigation would last one month. 

The expo was expected to host more than 500 Arab investors that represent around $100 million investment capital. The Turkish Economy Ministry had announced that they would finance half of the participation fee of US$25,000. Around 40 companies were expected to attend the event.