Realtors promoting the day when 2B’s are saved
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Enis Tayman - Referans
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 04, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - A real estate agent, who tried to sell undercover journalists a house for 250,000 Turkish liras, tells them a revised law is certain to come into effect soon. ’The cousin of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan owns land here. So do [Finance Minister] Kemal Unakıtan’s in-laws. Abdullah Gül does, too.
Hawked as investments guaranteed to multiply in value, homes built on former forestry land are being peddled by real estate agents who say the properties will quadruple in value once the prime minister gives a new law the nod. Sound too good to be true? It is.
The saga began when forests were cut down and homes illegally built when Turkish cities started to expand in the 1970s. The forests, registered as treasury land, were replaced by whole neighborhoods in some regions. While still considered forests, according to the land registry, in some instances they have been urban centers for decades but are still described as "2B lands" by the public. Houses built on 2B lands are currently being bought and sold through makeshift deeds.
When the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power, it considered selling such land to the owners of the houses built on the old forestry lands, hoping to generate a large amount of revenue. However, the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and environmentalists opposed the move. While admitting this land could not be restored to its previous state, these groups argued it would create a moral hazard and allow the destruction of other forests that remained in the country. Despite opposition, the government tried to pass regulation but the president vetoed it.
When Abdullah Gül was elected president in late 2007, opposition from the presidential office ended and the government again sought to pass the law. Gül approved it and it is currently waiting for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s signature so it can be published in the Official Gazette.
The law can only come into effect after it is published in the gazette, after which the opposition CHP has a right to lodge a complaint against it in the Constitutional Court.
Real estate agents in Istanbul are certain the law will pass and the top court will dismiss any potential CHP appeal. They have been promoting 2B lands, saying they could potentially quadruple in value once the law passes, and claiming top officials own land nearby.
One real estate agent who was trying to sell 2B lands in the Çavuşbaşı region on the Anatolian side of Istanbul dismissed the reservations of Referans daily reporter Enis Kayman and photojournalist Melek Aldemir, who posed as a couple seeking to buy a house. Çavuşbaşı has become synonymous with 2B lands. Most of the 18,233-hectare 2B land in the city is in Çavuşbaşı and there are around 10,000 buildings there.
The agent, who tried to sell the journalists a house for 250,000 Turkish liras, said the law was certain to come into effect soon. "The cousin of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan owns land here. So do [Finance Minister] Kemal Unakıtan’s in-laws. Abdullah Gül does, too. The home of a general from the GATA Military Hospital is just a little way ahead. What are you worried about?"
Value to quadruple
He also said once the law came into effect, the house and the land would be worth 800,000 liras.
Homeowners will have to pay a fee to officially own deeds for the land, which the government hopes will generate around $25 billion. The total amount of 2B land in question throughout Turkey is around 500,000 hectares, about the size of Istanbul province.
The illegality of the buildings has also opened the way for makeshift expansion of homes. The real estate agent in Çavuşbaşı pointed 400 meters up a hill next to the house he was showing the undercover couple and said: "You can expand your garden up to there if you want." He then showed them the roof of the house and said with a little work another room could be built on top, disclosing the secret to turning a shanty house into a mansion.
The agent said he did not understand apprehension about 2B lands because the local administrator and the municipality would surely approve any sale. When asked if the house would be taken away from them if the law did not come into effect, the realtor said, "Don’t worry about that," repeating the high profile names of those who own homes in the neighborhood.
Another real estate agent was upfront about the fact that the house he was trying to sell was on 2B land, but said he did not think it was a problem. He added the name of Emine Erdoğan, the prime minister’s wife, to the long list of dignitaries who he claims own homes in the neighborhood. "The only problem is that you will need to pay some extra money to get the legal deed once the law passes," he said.
ROOMWITH AN ILLEGALVIEW
Çengelköy, also on the Asian side, poses another problem. The 4,048 homes built by a building cooperative and around 1,000 shanty homes built nearby are also considered to be on 2B land.
An executive of the ATA Building Cooperative, Yalçın Soysevinç, describing the predicament they face, said in one particular house only the living room had been built on 2B land and the remainder was built on legally registered land.
"In 1985, we bought the land. In 1987 a forestry law was passed and in 1999 our deeds were annulled. Right now, we cannot distribute the deeds to the owners but we still have to pay property tax. We even used credit from the Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ) to build the homes."
The saga began when forests were cut down and homes illegally built when Turkish cities started to expand in the 1970s. The forests, registered as treasury land, were replaced by whole neighborhoods in some regions. While still considered forests, according to the land registry, in some instances they have been urban centers for decades but are still described as "2B lands" by the public. Houses built on 2B lands are currently being bought and sold through makeshift deeds.
When the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power, it considered selling such land to the owners of the houses built on the old forestry lands, hoping to generate a large amount of revenue. However, the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and environmentalists opposed the move. While admitting this land could not be restored to its previous state, these groups argued it would create a moral hazard and allow the destruction of other forests that remained in the country. Despite opposition, the government tried to pass regulation but the president vetoed it.
When Abdullah Gül was elected president in late 2007, opposition from the presidential office ended and the government again sought to pass the law. Gül approved it and it is currently waiting for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s signature so it can be published in the Official Gazette.
The law can only come into effect after it is published in the gazette, after which the opposition CHP has a right to lodge a complaint against it in the Constitutional Court.
Real estate agents in Istanbul are certain the law will pass and the top court will dismiss any potential CHP appeal. They have been promoting 2B lands, saying they could potentially quadruple in value once the law passes, and claiming top officials own land nearby.
One real estate agent who was trying to sell 2B lands in the Çavuşbaşı region on the Anatolian side of Istanbul dismissed the reservations of Referans daily reporter Enis Kayman and photojournalist Melek Aldemir, who posed as a couple seeking to buy a house. Çavuşbaşı has become synonymous with 2B lands. Most of the 18,233-hectare 2B land in the city is in Çavuşbaşı and there are around 10,000 buildings there.
The agent, who tried to sell the journalists a house for 250,000 Turkish liras, said the law was certain to come into effect soon. "The cousin of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan owns land here. So do [Finance Minister] Kemal Unakıtan’s in-laws. Abdullah Gül does, too. The home of a general from the GATA Military Hospital is just a little way ahead. What are you worried about?"
Value to quadruple
He also said once the law came into effect, the house and the land would be worth 800,000 liras.
Homeowners will have to pay a fee to officially own deeds for the land, which the government hopes will generate around $25 billion. The total amount of 2B land in question throughout Turkey is around 500,000 hectares, about the size of Istanbul province.
The illegality of the buildings has also opened the way for makeshift expansion of homes. The real estate agent in Çavuşbaşı pointed 400 meters up a hill next to the house he was showing the undercover couple and said: "You can expand your garden up to there if you want." He then showed them the roof of the house and said with a little work another room could be built on top, disclosing the secret to turning a shanty house into a mansion.
The agent said he did not understand apprehension about 2B lands because the local administrator and the municipality would surely approve any sale. When asked if the house would be taken away from them if the law did not come into effect, the realtor said, "Don’t worry about that," repeating the high profile names of those who own homes in the neighborhood.
Another real estate agent was upfront about the fact that the house he was trying to sell was on 2B land, but said he did not think it was a problem. He added the name of Emine Erdoğan, the prime minister’s wife, to the long list of dignitaries who he claims own homes in the neighborhood. "The only problem is that you will need to pay some extra money to get the legal deed once the law passes," he said.
ROOMWITH AN ILLEGALVIEW
Çengelköy, also on the Asian side, poses another problem. The 4,048 homes built by a building cooperative and around 1,000 shanty homes built nearby are also considered to be on 2B land.
An executive of the ATA Building Cooperative, Yalçın Soysevinç, describing the predicament they face, said in one particular house only the living room had been built on 2B land and the remainder was built on legally registered land.
"In 1985, we bought the land. In 1987 a forestry law was passed and in 1999 our deeds were annulled. Right now, we cannot distribute the deeds to the owners but we still have to pay property tax. We even used credit from the Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ) to build the homes."