Turkey’s thriving home-building industry has had a reversal of fortunes as the national economy slows down after four years of robust growth. The shift in global funds away from emerging markets, a devalued domestic currency, greater spending on imported oil and natural gas, increased interest rates on housing loans, rising inflationary expectations and concern over the conflict in the Middle East combined to hit the economy and batter the housing industry.
Such developments are hampering the nation’s construction industry, which fuelled the boom and made Turkey the fastest growing economy among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2004 and 2005. But the development of new, modern shopping centres, business offices and hotels remains strong, as the real estate market attempts to bounce back from the crisis.
