Outlook

NEW YORK-Bloomberg


Ali Agaoglu, Chairman of Agaoglu Group, a Turkish construction and tourism company, doesn't expect the Turkish house prices to fall following the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Ağaoğlu said in a press conference in Istanbul “I expect house prices in Turkey to double in dollar terms in the medium term because only this year the prices of iron, the main building material, rose more than 70 percent.”

“Turkey needs 1 million new houses every year, because about 700,000 couples get married each year and one third of the current 18 million homes need to be renewed over about 20 year's time. But only about 500,000 houses are built every year.” said Ağaoğlu, who also noted that the prices would continue to rise as the supply could not meet the demand.

“Many of the new houses in Turkey are built for medium and high income groups. It's not possible to target potentially more demanding low-income groups as the land prices are very high. But house prices are still low in Turkey compared to European cities”, added Ağaoğlu.