With rents for housing continuing to spiral the impact on local families is being felt, with at least one being made homeless as a result.
In Turkey, it is now almost impossible for low and middle-income people to buy a new house. High house prices and loan fees reduce the hope of buying a house more and more every day.
Rents have also increased six times in the last four years across the country, and this rate is much higher in metropolitan cities. Therefore, finding a house to rent has become equally difficult.
Unfortunately, the situation is also like this in Didim. The middle-income and low-income segments trying to survive on a single salary cannot afford their house rent.
While civil servants and teachers who came from the earthquake area were trying to get their appointments reinstated in their hometown, an elderly woman had to live on the street with her son.
Didim Education and Science Workers Union (Eğitim-Sen) stated that there was a large increase in the number of teachers who cancelled their transfer because they could not afford the rent.
Many teachers were appointed to Didim, which received intense immigration after the ‘6 February earthquakes’. However, teachers who had difficulty paying the rent cancelled their transfers.
Education Sen Didim Chief Representative Belkıs Kahraman said, “After the earthquake, more than 50 of our teacher friends came to Didim. Unfortunately, some of these friends had to cancel their appointments and return due to high house rents.
Mrs Kahraman
“House rents in Didim have had their share of inflation, as in all of Turkey, and it is not possible for a single-earner family to make ends meet under these conditions.”
Family on the street
Teachers are not the only ones experiencing difficulties due to high rents. 74-year-old Semra Gümüş, who lived on the street for a while with her 34-year-old son because she could not find a house to rent, is currently staying in a hotel temporarily.
Semra Gümüş (Photo: Makbule Pamuk)
This family, whose hotel owner opened one of his rooms, has been looking for a suitable rental apartment for months. Gümüş explained: “This is the first time something like this has happened to us. The way life goes… As you know, rents have increased a lot. Salaries are not enough to handle.
“If I could find a house with one room and a living room, it would have been enough for us, but we couldn’t find that either.”
Reaction from Didim Realtors Association
Voices spoke to Umut Öz, President of the Didim Realtors Association, to get information about rent increase rates and to talk about this trend.
He said: “Between 2019 and 2023, there was a 583% increase in rents across the country, and the average increase rate in metropolitan cities was 697%. The average rental price in metropolitan cities and summer regions such as Didim exceeds 79 per cent of the minimum wage.”
Mr. Öz
Stating that the rent increases and the crisis in the real estate sector are mainly due to the supply-demand balance deteriorating from year to year, he added: “The stagnation in the construction sector in the face of the increasing housing need and the planning of new houses as luxury flats for investment purposes, rather than for low- and middle-income people, widens the gap in the sector. So we could say, new houses are being built for the rich.”
Öz stated that he thinks the increase in rental prices will continue unless measures are taken. He said: “Our expertise is no longer sufficient to comment on the future. It is not possible to read government policies.”
Regarding how much the landlord can increase the rent, Mr. Umut said, “The upper limit for the rent increase has been determined by the Minister of Justice as 25% from July 2, 2023, to July 2, 2024, that is, for 1 year.”
Stating that the mandatory mediation period in rent cases has started as of September 1, Öz said, “With this decision, it is aimed to resolve the issues related to rent disputes through mediators before they are referred to the court. It is aimed to ensure that the parties reach a compromise with less expense and more quickly.”