At the Forum Istanbul meeting on Friday the real estate and energy sector met to discuss Turkey's strategies in 2023 in light of world developments.

As part of the meeting, one person emphasized how real estate sales to foreigners could increase tourism sector income.

"We should work to up residential home sales to foreigners, as it would result in an increase in tourism," Hasan Rahvalı, the general manager of Akdeniz İnşaat said.

"If we were to sell one million residential homes to foreigners, it would provide an interest free income of 250 billion euros in real estate business and inject $80 billion into our tourism sector."

700 construction sites built:

Residential home demand and cheaper home production was discussed in detail during the "Real Estate Investments and Financing Issues in Developing Strategies" meeting.

Rahvalı said the 680,000 annual increase in home demand comes from newlyweds and not the population increase. He believes that by decreasing land costs, homes can be provided for low income groups. "Turkey can solve the problem by 2023 by producing 700,000 to one million homes per year. The home loan will amount to $200 billion in 2023," he said.

Erdoğan Bayraktar, the chairman of TOKİ (Housing Development Administration of Turkey) said that since 2003, 700 construction sites have been built in 81 provinces' 313 districts. He continued to say that TOKİ started with the construction of more than 255,000 homes and are about to complete another 140,000. "But citizens with an income of YTL 850 cannot afford a home. That's why we continue building for and selling to low-income groups," stated Bayraktar.

Nazmi Durbakayım, chairman of the board of Teknik Yapı, said that homes are expensive because they cannot buy cheap land. He believes citizens should first buy the "main home" and design it according to their budgets. "We live in large homes, and plan 10-15 years in advance. Thus, the upfront investment and monthly maintenance costs are high," said Durbakayım. If we decrease the square meter size of properties, the deficit in housing would descend, he added.

Emre Çamlıbel, general manager of Soyak, said that in Turkey there is demand for 600-700,000 homes per year, and in order to close the deficit the private sector needs to get involved more actively. Uğur Dumankaya, chairman of the board of Dumankaya Construction stated that the market rules have changed. "In 2005 we were sellers, but in 2007 we play by the rules of the buyer."

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