Preliminary investigation of the Competition Authority on the increase in rents after the earthquake

After the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, the Competition Authority decided to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether real estate agents and brokers operating in Ankara violated competition by pricing real estate sales and rental fees together.

According to information obtained by the AA correspondent, the Competition Authority closely followed price fluctuations in the real estate market after the earthquakes on February 6.

The institution took measures to implement the necessary inspection and sanction mechanisms in the face of possible cartelization.

In this context, the Authority launched a preliminary investigation to determine whether real estate agents, real estate consultants and brokers operating in Ankara violate competition by determining real estate sales prices and rental rates together. In many companies operating in the sector, on-site inspections are carried out by experts from the institution.

According to the findings, it is stated that the scope of the examinations can be expanded and other provinces can be included in the scope.

‘STRONG SANCTIONS WILL BE IMPLEMENTED’

Officials of the Competition Authority claimed that the high rate of increase in real estate sale and rental prices after the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş caused complaints for all citizens who were looking for a house in their city and who had to move to different places due to earthquake:

“The Competition Authority, with all its technical infrastructure and personnel resources, will continue to deepen its investigations in the real estate market in order to prevent cartelization, and will impose the most severe sanctions on those responsible in the event of detection of those causing formations of prices that occur outside of market conditions”. (AA)