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Date - 19th July 2007
The startling growth projected for the Turkish real estate industry may challenge even the ability of banks, with their own capital, to fund housing loans, said Akbank Individual Banking Trade Department chief Cem Muratoğlu.
According to the real estate sector’s forecast, the sector will reach YTL 42 billion by the end of 2008, noted Muratoğlu. Explaining that it has a current value of YTL 24 billion, he added: “The real estate sector will grow by 90 percent. We think that the gross national product (GNP) average will be around 6.5 percent. This is not an optimistic scenario. According to some better scenarios, the GNP could rise to 8.5 percent. While we were calculating this, we took into consideration the averages of surrounding countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.” Muratoğlu said that since 2005, some 75,000 people have become homeowners through housing loans given by banks. Saying that Akbank alone issued YTL 2 billion in housing loans last year, he added: “Since of the beginning of this year our remainder is over YTL 3 billion. We also give loans to foreigners. In some regions we have quite a significant number of requests from foreigners. We are preparing ourselves for this as well, for example issuing loans for at least half of the cost of the house. In addition we are considering the possibility of issuing even bigger amounts. We will broaden our practice during the following period. We have the intention of supporting foreigners’ requests as well.” Pointing out that the Turkish real estate sector has great potential for growth and development, Muratoğlu noted that the increase in interest rates in developed countries last year, especially the US, have affected world markets.
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