Housing Programs

TOKİ's social housing program of TOKİ targets low and middle-income people who could not own a house unit in the current market conditions. As of January 2022, 86% of TOKİ's project portfolio is social housing projects with these target groups. The remaining 14% are the projects carried out by the Administration to develop financial resources.

Since 2002, within the scope of the "Planned Urbanization and Housing Development Mobilization" of the Government of the Republic of Türkiye; 1.062.676 housing units' productions in 81 provinces have been given start at 4.834 construction sites by TOKİ. (by January 2022).  7.093 tenders amounting to 180 Billion TL. have been finalized.

TOKİ's social housing program consists non-profit social projects developed on the lands owned by the Administration and produced entirely by the Administration's own financial resources.

The beneficiaries of the social housing projects make their down-payments at the beginning of the constructions after the tender or at a certain stage (determined by the Administration) and make their monthly payments due to a single-indexed re-payment plan. For most of these projects, the index where monthly installments are increased on a semi-annual basis is the official public sector wage index.(announced by Turk Stat). The maturities of the loan repayments of these projects are set as 10 - 20 years on average depending on the income patterns of the target groups.

TOKİ finalizes the construction of housing units within 36 months on average.

Looking at the distribution of projects within TOKİ's social housing program and the realizations as of January 2022; 47% of the social housing program of TOKİ consists of those for the low and middle-income groups. 14,80% of the projects have been developed for the poor groups. The urban renewal projects which have recently become increasingly significant, have a ratio of 17 %. In addition, post-disaster housing projects constitute 7,36% of the entire social program and agricultural village projects 0,70%.

Since the property right is owned by TOKİ until the debt is over, the repayments of the projects are under guarantee. That is, TOKİ is acting as a 'guarantor' for the repayments of the project. The fact that the title deeds are not given to the buyers before all debts are paid minimizes the default situation. As a matter of fact, default rate is close to zero.

The repayments of the sales realized and loans made available by TOKİ are pursued and collected over public banks in the name of TOKİ. The collections accumulating in banks are transferred to the accounts of the Administration within the framework of the protocols with the banks.

Sales prices of the units are set by TOKİ, taking into consideration the cost of construction, social facilities, cost of infrastructure, cost of consultancy services and cost of land. Sales prices are determined without profit, in view of the saving patterns and monthly affordability of the target groups.

Total construction cost is the sum of construction, mechanical, electrical substructure, land-scape and ground improvement etc. costs.

The sales prices of the housing units produced for the poor citizens (one of the category of TOKİ's social type housing program) do not include the cost of land.

Disadvantaged groups are TOKI's priority in social housing production. Low and middle income families constitute the main target and separate quotas are allocated for the handicapped, martyr families, the disabled and the pensioners.

TOKİ use the "tunnel form-work" system with higher building safety which is also earthquake resistant providing smooth geometric spaces and allowing fast and high-quality production, while schools, trade centers, hospitals, mosque, police station, dormitories, stadiums etc. buildings apply conventional formwork systems. In addition, light steel construction systems are preferred in structures with low production such as village houses and health centers.

■  Since 2002, TOKİ has been following a comprehensive policy in order to accelerate the urban renewal projects throughout the country in cooperation with local governments, with the support of the central government.

Within the scope of the Law No.5162 that underlines "the prevention of shanty settlements in our cities in cooperation with local authorities and the transformation of the existing shanty settlements" in the Emergency Action Plan of the program of the 58th Government and the regulations adapted on May 2004, TOKİ has been assigned to be in service in the urban renewal projects and has been carrying out its projects in this sense.

TOKİ projects constitute a "model" for the local governments and other actors of the housing sector. TOKİ not only transforms slums, extremely intensive shanty settlements, areas with a high risk of natural disasters (earthquake, flood, landslide etc.) and historical urban areas as well as urban areas whose economic lifetime is over but also tries to prevent formation of new slum areas.

The areas where slums are cleaned by the relevant local governments are re-planned by TOKİ and project-based solution proposals are developed together with the municipality within the framework of the legislation.

It is the main target to rehabilitate the shanty regions of the city by way of most efficient use of the public resources while simultaneously trying to keep the maximum satisfaction of the citizens.

Urban renewal projects of TOKİ continue throughout the country, especially in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. A total of 179 thousand housing units have been transformed so far, and the tenders for 14.128 slum transformation housings have been completed in 2021.

■  TOKİ pioneers the efforts of the government to construct houses, substructure and public utilities in regions damaged by natural disasters. The activities of the Administration in the field of disaster management and restructuring started with Erzincan Earthquake in 1992. TOKİ received the United Nation's HABITAT Scroll of HONOR in 1994 for having provided housing credits to hundreds of thousands of low and medium income families and for having implemented the Erzincan Earthquake Reconstruction Project successfully.

After VAN Earthquake (2011), one of the major earthquakes recently realized in Anatolia, 15.000 houses and their social facilities have been completed within a year in Van by our Administration in coordination with AFAD actively participating in restructuring of the city, and 18 thousand houses were constructed for the beneficiaries up until today. Furthermore, all kinds of support were provided to those willing to build their own house, barn, work place (Houses are produced for disaster regions within the scope of the disaster regions in line with the demand by the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Office. All houses under construction by TOKİ are purchased by AFAD.)

With the "Law on Transformation of Places under Disaster Risk" numbered 6306 that took effect during the time of office of 61st. Government for the purpose of demolition of unpermitted/risky buildings with inadequate earthquake-resistant design, material resistance and construction and of restoration of old buildings, urban transformation works spread throughout Türkiye and TOKİ's duties reached a significant position with entities responsible at implementation level. On legalization of the relevant legislation, comprehensive urban transformation projects were started throughout Türkiye with a new era in urban transformation.

After the Elazığ, Malatya and İzmir earthquakes, flood and fire disasters, a total of 38.771 housing units, 4.120 village houses, 269 work-places, 25 schools, 18 mosques, 2 dormitories and 1.809 barns have been built and are under construction. By the end of 2021, totally 21.454 housing units have been delivered to the right-holders.

■ In parallel with its social housing projects, TOKİ develops innovative financial models in order to create new financial resources. Because, the Administration continues its projects without taking share from the general budget and produces its own resources. In this context, the most successful model used by TOKİ is the "income (revenue) sharing model" which provides housings to the high income groups in order to establish funds for housing projects of low and middle income groups. The model is based on housing production on TOKİ owned lands in provinces like İstanbul and Ankara in collaboration with the private sector and on sharing the sales income with the private partner. This is a build-sell model and this concept is based on income - not housing. TOKİ developed this model to close the gap between its short-term investment expenses and its long-term receivables.

■ The other activities of TOKİ are mainly the "agricultural village projects", "migrant dwellings", "restoration of buildings of historical-cultural importance", "cooperative credits", and "housing loans for victims of war". In 2021, a total of 147.5 million TL interest-free housing loans were extended to 863 families of martyrs and disabled people, 177 thousand TL per unit.

■ TOKİ's affordable housing includes producing the social facilities within the projects. TOKİ also carries out the necessary infrastructure and environmental arrangements in its projects.

Construction practice and experience of TOKİ has been actively employed in many social facilities' construction such as health, education, security, lodging, sports facilities, care centers for homeless children and dormitories where needed, especially in the recent years via the Protocols signed with various Ministries, state institutions and organizations. Consequently TOKİ can provide support to all public entities in Türkiye regarding the planning, tender and construction of the particular service building needed by the public.

As part of TOKİ's project portfolio, industrial sites within the city centers are taken out of the cities, resulting in an urban transformation as well as building new industrial sites for tradesmen of the project region.

With the Community Gardens project which was initiated in 2018, the green spaces in our cities are increased, while the people are provided with large recreational areas that protect natural and cultural values. Community Gardens create a new vision in the green development process and are being expanded in all 81 provinces of the country. Planning and construction processes of 210 Community Gardens are still ongoing.

TOKİ carried out a total of 25.971 social facility applications between 2003 and January 2022.