Erdogan Bayraktar, president of government housing institution TOKI, announced today that hey reached an agreement with the public banks that will move from Ankara to Istanbul along with the Central Bank of Turkey.
Banks were insisting on purchasing the land from the government using the previous prices as a basis on the agreement. According to Bayraktar, parties agreed on terms that were much closer to what the banks were looking for. The details of the agreement was disclosed to the Prime Minister and as soon as the approval is obtained from the ministry, the agreement will become official.
The majority of the payments will be made in cash and TOKI will allow some banks another 6 months to pay the balance. Land and property prices at Atasehir, a comparatively new residential area on the Asian part of Istanbul, increased by 20% in the last 2 months of 2007. The region is most likely to become a financial center for the whole city and the relocation of these public banks into the area will continue to have a strong impact on the prices.
