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From ZAMAN:

Landlords ignore inflation targets

Though the Central Bank of Turkey has an ambitious target of shrinking inflation to 4 percent by the end of this year, Turkish landlords are disregarding central bank goals and taking their own paths.
In Turkey average monthly rental fees rose by 20.3 percent year-on-year in July 2007, reaching YTL 379.93 from YTL 315.73. The inflation rate, however, was around 6.9 percent. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked landowners to be more conscientious toward their tenants and abide by inflation targets when escalating rent fees. The government had previously tried to pass a bill amending the contract law to stipulate that rent increases be tied to inflation rates, but the attempt proved unsuccessful and the bill never came to general session for discussion.
According to data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (Turkstat), the average rent in İstanbul was YTL 420.4 in July 2006 but had hit YTL 516.07 by last month. Accommodation for İstanbulites costs 22.7 percent more this year than last year. As of July the highest increases were in the region including Kocaeli, Sakarya Düzce and Bolu, where prices jumped by 32.6 percent, rising from YTL 232.11 to YTL 307.8. Konya and Karaman also saw large price hikes, with renters paying 26.5 percent more money than in July 2006.

In Ankara average rental costs grew by 17.2 percent; the figure was 16.4 percent in İzmir. Given this, a person in Ankara who paid YTL 329.43 last year was charged YTL 386.25 this past July. In İzmir this amount rose from YTL 370.36 to YTL 431.15.

The region including Bursa, Eskişehir and Bilecik saw growth of 10.1 percent, bringing prices from YTL 296.67 to 326.77. In comparing cost changes in housing with other sectors, the solid waste tax and potable water prices increased at rates in compliance with the inflation rate during the same period (7.1 and 7.6 percent, respectively).


09.08.2007