The Turkish Ministry of Trade has announced new regulations affecting the sale of second-hand cars and home sales in the country, which will come into force from next September with the aim of regulating the market and preventing fraud and price speculation.
According to Turkish media reports, from 15 September a new regulation will come into force to verify advertisements for the sale of second-hand properties, which aims to put an end to fraud in the sector and price abuses. Under the new regulation, real estate agencies will not be able to show property ads without the owner’s authorisation. “You will no longer see your house advertised without your consent, and no real estate agent will be able to list a property that they are not authorised to sell,” explained Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat.
The ministry explains that this does not mean that owners will not be able to advertise their own homes, but that the regulation will only affect real estate agents, who will have to register on a government online platform to obtain an authorisation code; if an owner wants to sell or rent their property through an agent, they will be able to authorise them to do so on the platform through this code. From 15 September all listings will have to be marked as “verified” to be legal, and from 1 January 2025 it will be mandatory for all real estate agents to be registered on the system.
“This will bring rents down as well”
Turkish Deputy Trade Minister Mahmut Gürcan explained that this practice aims to put an end to the roguery of many real estate agents, who advertised all kinds of properties without the owner’s knowledge: “Some people go to real estate websites and sell these houses, even though no one is advertising them. But when you ask about the house they say ‘no, we’ve sold it. But we’re going to show you another listing’. Fake advertisements are made. Our aim is to prevent manipulation and bring more rigour to the functioning of the market.”
“We want to avoid manipulation in the listing system. This will also bring down rental prices somewhere, because prices were inflated on the websites and there was speculation with apartments that were not being rented, as if they were being rented,” added Gürcan, who announced that the same measure will also apply to used cars sales.
New regulations for used cars sales
The ministry plans to apply the same measures for home sales to the second-hand car market, with the plan in this case being for the new regulations on used car ads to come into force at the end of September.
In addition, Turkish media reported that the government has decided to extend until at least 31 December the restrictions whereby both companies and individuals cannot sell cars, motorbikes or any other type of vehicle as second-hand until 6 months have passed and it has 6,000 km from its date of registration, also with the aim of regulating the market and preventing fraud. In this regard, the Ministry of Commerce has so far imposed fines for 52 million liras (more than 1.4 million euros) for illegal sales of second-hand vehicles that did not comply with the “6 months and 6,000 km” requirement.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
