Real Estate Expert Babürhan: “Rental prices have started to decrease”

Real estate expert Ihsan Babürhan in Elazığ stated that the increased rental prices following the devastating earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, rapidly decreased with the delivery of TOKİ residences. The earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, resulted in the loss of thousands of lives in 11 provinces and tens of thousands of people were injured. Following the disaster, especially with the influx of earthquake survivors from Malatya, Kahramanmaraş, and Hatay to Elazığ, there were no rental houses left in the city. Due to their reliability, earthquake survivors particularly preferred the TOKİ residences built by the state, which led to exorbitant rental prices being set for the remaining houses, making citizens ponder. With the rapid construction of TOKİ residences initiated by the government shortly after the earthquake, rental prices also began to decrease rapidly. Ihsan Babürhan, working as a real estate expert in Elazığ, stated that houses previously rented for 10,000 liras immediately dropped to 4,000 to 5,000 liras after the earthquake. ‘Rental prices started to decrease.’ Real estate sales expert Ihsan Babürhan, mentioning difficulties in rental price increases following the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, stated, ‘With the problems experienced in neighboring provinces, demand for TOKİ residences in Elazığ had increased. Therefore, there were difficulties in rental prices. But at the current stage, we are experiencing a decline in rental increases. Rental prices have started to decrease. While rental listings were scarce in the past, we now see hundreds of listings. We predict that rental prices will continue to decrease day by day. Because we expect that with the relocation of citizens from neighboring provinces to their hometowns, rental price increases and the number of rental houses will also increase. Rental prices, which were one thousand liras before the earthquake, suddenly rose to ten thousand liras. There were exorbitant rental increases, but looking at the current situation, with rental demands returning to normal, prices have started to decrease to around 4,000 to 5,000 liras again. We predict that this decrease will continue in the future and the rate of increase will decrease. TOKİ residences have a significant advantage. They play a major role in both price increases and decreases. TOKİ residences, which were abundant after the Elazığ earthquake on January 24, 2020, brought relief to Elazığ in terms of rental prices. TOKİ residences will also play a major role in the decrease of current rental prices. The construction and delivery of TOKİ residences built in earthquake-affected provinces will further reduce prices.’