Turkish courts are facing a record number of lawsuits after the government introduced a cap on rent increases, Dunya newspaper reported.
(Bloomberg) — Turkish courts are facing a record number of lawsuits after the government introduced a cap on rent increases, Dunya newspaper reported.
The number of cases brought by landlords against tenants stood at about 47,000 in the first half of the year, more than twice the total in the whole of 2022, Dunya said, citing Ali Guvenc Kiraz, head of the Istanbul-based Property Law Association. “Courts are jammed,” he said.
Turkey introduced a 25% annual limit on rent hikes last year and extended it for another 12 months in July despite consumer inflation rising to as much as 85.5%. The policy resulted in an increasing number of court cases as landlords try to evict tenants and find new ones to circumvent the cap. National media outlets often report instances of violence between tenants and landowners, some of which turned deadly.
The spike in home prices and rents was underpinned by a broad-based acceleration in consumer inflation, which followed reductions by the central bank in its key interest rate in 2021 and 2022 under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey May House Prices Rose 103.64% on Year
Erdogan appointed a new central bank governor — Hafize Gaye Erkan — following his election victory in May, allowing the newly installed economic administration to raise borrowing costs to cool demand and slow inflation. The central bank’s key interest rate has been raised by 9 percentage points since then.
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