Housing affordability crisis and vulnerable social groups in Turkey


Coskun Y.

OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL, cilt.48, sa.2, ss.258-284, 2023 (AHCI, SSCI, Scopus) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 48 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1108/ohi-12-2021-0267
  • Dergi Adı: OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Periodicals Index Online, ICONDA Bibliographic
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.258-284
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Housing affordability, House cost to income ratio, Inequality, Vulnerable social groups, Turkey, R58, R31, I32, FINANCE, MARKET, POLICY, CHINA, INEQUALITY, POVERTY, ECONOMY, MODEL
  • TED Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Purpose This paper investigates the housing affordability crisis from the perspective of vulnerable social groups (VSG) in Turkey and Turkey's megacities, Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, over the period of 2010 and 2019. Design/methodology/approach The author employ house cost and multiple income variables, involving residual income, to construct socially informative house cost-to-income (HCI) ratios. To measure the country/urban level socio-economic dimensions of the affordability crisis, the author develop 12 main and 76 specific housing affordability criteria. Findings The author find that housing is not affordable in Turkey and low/unequal distribution of income is a contributive factor for the affordability crisis of VSG. The evidence suggests that housing unaffordability for VSG is deeply rooted in the socio-economic/demographic disparities that eventually result in income and homeownership inequalities. Social implications Constructed HCI ratios provide precise information for the targeted housing affordability policies for the VSG defined by education level, age, location, income distribution, employment status/condition and gender. The author' socially targeted modeling approach briefly suggests that housing affordability policies should focus on low-educated groups, young generations, some elementary occupations, employees in low-income industries, and casual/regular-small firms' employees. Originality/value This is the first study that provides nuanced information on housing affordability for Turkey by employing HCI ratios for the targeted VSG. This socially targeted empirical analysis is the first analysis for developing housing markets as well. From the methodological perspective, the author contribute information quality of the housing affordability ratio by using income data of various aggregate-level socio-economic/demographic groups.