Turkiye increases rental assistance by 30 percent in urban areas

By Azernews

By Ibrahim Acar

Turkish Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum has said that the amount of rental assistance, beneficiaries are provided with under urban transformation projects, has increased by 30 percent across the country, Yeni Shafak reports.

He made the remarks at the inauguration of over 2,000 residences, the construction of which was completed in Esenler, Istanbul, and will be handed over to the beneficiaries on August 19 in a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We are increasing the rental assistance from 1,150 ($64) to TRY1,500 ($83) in Istanbul. We will bring the rate to the same level in other provinces," Kurum stressed.

He added that the support for urban transformation is not limited to rental assistance.

“On a project basis, we have areas that can cost up to 2,000 TRY ($117). To help our citizens with housing costs, our ministry will provide 600 basis points with assistance in credit support up to 600,000 TRY ($33,000). It was TRY400,000 ($22,000) and 400 basis points. This is increased to TRY 600,000 and 600 basis points. We have increased the rental assistance to TRY1,500 ($83) beginning September, which is subject to regional variations. We are increasing our rental assistance to TRY2,600 ($144) in places where it was previously TRY2,000,” the minister said.

The rental assistance provided by the ministry within the scope of urban transformation incentives will increase from TRY1,150 to 1,500 in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. It will increase from TRY1,058 ($58) to 1,400 ($77) in Adana, Antalya, Bursa, and Konya. In other provinces, the rental assistance applied will also be increased by 30 percent.

Kurum said that in addition to the social housing project that the Mass Housing Development Administration (TOKI) will launch in 81 provinces, another campaign will be organized in September under the coordination of the General Directorate of Emlak Konut - a real estate developer.

He emphasized that the General Directorate of Emlak Konut had previously launched a similar campaign involving all medium and upper medium projects throughout Turkey, which was supported by the ministry.

“Now, I hope they will start this process together with the whole sector, together with all real estate companies, in September,” Kurum stressed.

The minister underlined that urban transformation projects are on the rise in Esenler, Turkiye.

"In the first phase of our 60,000-home project, we started 4,941 residences. On Friday, we hope to deliver 2,030 keys to our citizens from Esenler in the presence of our president. We will finish the remaining apartments by the end of the year and will continue to use a total of 4,941 apartments in stages as part of the Esenler transformation process,” he added.

Kurum stated that 23 years had passed since the 17 August 1999 earthquake, but the pain is still fresh.

“When we examine earthquakes our country has experienced in the last century, it becomes clear that most of them occurred in Hakkari, Varto, Erzincan, Van, and most recently in Elazig, Malatya, and Izmir that cost 80,000 lives,” he recalled.

The minister emphasized that the Turkish government is always there for its citizens who have been affected by natural disasters.

“When we look at the earthquake map of our country, 71 percent of our population and 66 percent of our lands are at risk of earthquakes. In this sense, it is not an earthquake, but unhealthy buildings take the lives of our citizens and damage their property,” he said.