Turkey meets the million houses milestone

The Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKI) has constructed one million houses, providing homes to more than five million citizens, since 2003.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday handed over the key for the millionth public home to its new owners in a public opening ceremony. 

"Through TOKI, we accomplished what no one else in the world could achieve," President Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of homes.

"With an investment of approximately 200 billion Turkish liras ($23 billion), we've made our people from all walks of life homeowners," Erdogan added.

Since 2003, TOKI has contributed to the construction and reconstruction of Turkey with its social facilities and the houses it produced in 19 years.

TOKI has not only built residences but also constructed more than 24,000 facilities.

TOKI has also built 1,276 schools, 201 student dormitories, 21 university buildings, 268 hospitals, 97 health centers, 19 stadiums with the capacity of hosting 480 thousand spectators as per the UEFA standards, 993 sports halls, 840 mosques, and 285 public service buildings.

TOKI's housing project was aimed at creating new living spaces, where people could socialise and promote the culture of family, neighbourliness and solidarity.

Thanks to the social housing programme, low and middle-income families, who cannot buy a house under the existing market conditions, could own these houses with low pricing and long instalment models.

In line with the "More Green" approach, 192 of the Nation’s gardens, which were brought to life with the goal of at least one national garden in every city throughout the country, are also being built by TOKI. The old stadium areas in the city centres are also turned into gardens by TOKI and designed as a new life and gathering areas in case of earthquakes.

Under 2023 targets, the Nation’s gardens are being expanded in all 81 provinces to create healthy living spaces and recreation areas to increase standard quality of life in urban places.

TOKI is moving the old industrial sites located in the cities across the country to the new facilities it has built in order for the artisans to produce in more modern areas.

Providing job opportunities to approximately 200 sub-sectors in the construction sector, TOKI continued its activities at the construction sites without interruption by complying with the health conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from building infrastructure in Turkey, the TOKI also operates in other countries such as Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Albania to develop infrastructure for the communities living there.

Especially after natural disasters, earthquakes or tsunamis, TOKI has carried out re-construction projects in these countries. 

For example, after a devastating earthquake hit Albania in November 2019, TOKI has started to build 522 housing units in January 2020 for the help of the reconstruction of the Adriatic nation. The project will cost approximately $51 million.

In April, Turkish of Environment and Urbanisation Minister Murat Kurum announced that TOKI will build hundreds of houses for Crimean Tatars in Ukraine.

“Within the scope of the agreement, which is the first concrete step regarding our housing project for our Crimean Tatar kins who had to leave their homeland, we will build 500 houses in the cities of Kyiv, Mykolaiv, and Kherson by TOKI,” he said.