Housing supply under different economic development strategies and the forms of state intervention : The experience of Turkey

This paper examines the forms of State intervention in the housing sector within different economic contexts in Turkey. Drastic changes in economic development strategies in Turkey over the last three decades have caused crises in the housing sector. The State changed its non-interventionist approach and became a credit lender and a direct investor in order to reactivate the sector. These structural changes together make the Turkish experience of special interest, and several lessons can be derived from such an experience. Turkish experience shows that without the Stateʹs intervention it would not have been possible for the housing sector to revive. Nevertheless, in the absence of policies to tackle the bottlenecks on the production side, extending credit to consumers and/or undertaking housing production has had limited benefits.