Turkey’s 20 housing kings

There are companies in Turkey which have more than 40 years experience in building homes. These companies have to date built thousands, even tens of thousands, of homes. From this perspective, it is possible to call famous companies such as Mesa, Soyak, Kiptaş and Tepe ‘housing kings’. These expert companies have strong references and their new projects attract considerable interest from knowledgeable consumers. We researched how many houses the 20 leading companies in the housing sector have built to date and studied their new projects.

The increase in housing construction and the rise of companies expert in the field occurred in the second half of the 1980s. The Mass Housing and Public Participation Administration Directorate was established in 1984 during the Özal era and the housing sector began to develop rapidly. During this period companies which worked on large-scale housing developments and mass housing projects became stronger and increased their expertise.

259,000 housing permits were issued in 1985 and 381,000 in 1990. In 1993 a total of 548,000 permits were issued for apartments setting a new record. But the building of houses declined at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21^st century. The housing sector was hard hit by the disastrous earthquake of 1999 and the economic crisis of 2001.

Now the sector has returned to its heyday. In big cities in particular, some areas have virtually become building sites. Many investors have joined in. But there are many companies in housing construction which everyone have known for years. They attract attention because they are well-established and trusted. Many of them have their roots in the 1960s. Companies such as Soyak and Mesa have to date built up to 50,000 houses. They are followed by companies such as Kiptaş, Tepe, İhlas, Alarko and Ağaoğlu, which have built thousands of houses. These leading companies in the housing sector are now back on the agenda once again. They have excellent references and the new projects they are producing are attracting great interest.

Because today when consumers buy houses, they make decisions taking into consideration the developments and performances of the projects which the companies have realised to date. For this reason, the projects that these leading companies in the housing sector have started attract considerable interest and are valuable. They are all snapped up while they are still being built. We investigated the leading companies in the Turkish housing sector. The profiles and new projects of the 20 leading companies are as follows:

Leader Mesa’s new targets

When one looks at the number of houses that have been built to date, one sees that the leading companies are Mesa and Soyak. There is no doubt that the company which has built more houses than anybody else is Mesa Mesken Sanayi A.Ş. To date it has built 50,000 homes. The group of companies was founded in 1969 and the homes it has built to date cover an area of 5 million square metres. This group, which has changed the image of mass housing in Turkey, is headed by Atilla Şenol.

Mesa has major housing projects in both Istanbul and Ankara. It is currently constructing 304 housing units in the Yonca and Dikmen projects in Ankara. In Istanbul it is building 190 housing units in Kemerburgaz. Mesa is continuing to construct a 634 unit housing project in Lithuania. It is also planning to start work on two other projects. In Çayyolu in Ankara it will construct 464 housing units in partnership with TOKİ, while in Bahçeşehir in Istanbul it will build 303 units together with Nurol Construction.

Soyak has built 50,000 units

Soyak Construction is another of the companies that come to mind when someone mentions housing. It was established in 1961. Since 1999 Erkut Soyak has been the company’s board chairman. Since it was established Soyak has built 50,000 units and its most important project to date is Olympiakent (Olympiacity) in Istanbul. The project covers one million square metres of land and comprises 3,500 apartments of different types.

Erkut Soyak says that they plan to construct similar projects in other cities. Soyak gives the following information about their work:

“We are conducting research on markets and land in provinces where there is a great demand for housing. We shall start with a new project in Izmir. A contract based on the revenue sharing system has been signed with Emlak GYO and within this context we shall start the construction and sale of a 1,500 unit housing project in Mavişehir in Izmir in 2005. In addition, with the 2,000 housing units that we shall build on land purchased directly opposite Mavişehir on the road to Çanakkale the number of housing units will reach 3,500. Research is continuing on realising new projects in Izmir.”

The companies which are kings of the housing market

Yasemin Balaban

[email protected]