Turkey working on new project to establish real estate stock exchange: Deputy PM

ISTANBUL

Turkey is set to establish an international real estate stock exchange, which will enable the sale of property in the country to be sold abroad, a top official announced. 

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said the financing burden of the real estate sector has been weighing on the banking sector, so the government recently launched a “real estate certificate” as an alternative financing instrument. 

The next move will be to establish an international real estate stock exchange, Canikli said at a meeting on May 18, Reuters reported. 

Saying that any property in Turkey can be sold abroad through the planned stock exchange, which will be launched with the voluntarily participation of members of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), he added the respective work would be submitted to parliament soon. 

“We have completed the technical details of the model with the direction of the president [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]. This will be an international real estate stock exchange with the participation of the COMCEC countries,” Canikli said. 

Any house, land, real estate project or mall will be able to be traded in the planned stock exchange through stock brokers, he added. 

Canikli claimed that the system, which will be a first in the world, will be risk-free and safe for both buyers and sellers, as any ownership certificate for real estate will not be offered unless the related payment is secured through an established clearing house. 

“Only after this process is completed will the ownership certificate be exchangeable in the digital environment,” he said, adding that as the system will be digital it does not matter where it is based, but Turkey has been working on the required infrastructure works. 

There are 57 COMCEC countries and any of them will be able to be a part of the system if they want, Canikli also stated. 

He also said the demand for the recently real estate certificate is so far limited, but predicted that it will rise gradually as people learn more about it.