It is hard to talk about cities in this country anymore.
Because what we call “city” has already changed its meaning.
It used to be a city;
It was a place where people lived, took root and established relationships.
City today;
It has become an asset that is valued, priced, bought and sold.
And this transformation has not been quiet.
But it was slow to be recognized.
When you look at the streets today, what you see is not a city.
What you see construction site continuity.
Cranes, excavations, rising blocks, billboards...
“Slogans such as ”new living space“, ”prestige project“, ”investment opportunity".
But there is one thing missing in all this intensity:
life itself.
Because what is being done is not producing a city.
produce square meters.
Housing is no longer a necessity.
Nothing can be understood without understanding this critical break.
It's home now:
- not a place to live
- not a place to live
- life is not the ground on which to build
It's home now:
- asset held
- vehicle expected to increase in value
- financial position
has become.
This change is not a small economic shift.
This one, is the financialization of housing.
That is, detached from the social function of housing,
to become an instrument that circulates entirely within the market.
And here a critical break occurs:
The city is no longer for the living,
according to those who can access it.
What does that mean?
Two different realities emerge in the same city:
- one makes investment accounts
- the other makes rent calculations
But the two seem to live in the same space.
In fact, this is a misconception.
Because the city is no longer a common living space.
The city is a place where different economic strata overlap. access systemDir.
And the natural consequence of this system is this:
- the number of houses increases
- but the number of homeowners will not increase
- tenancy becomes permanent
- the city is class-differentiated
That is why the city is not growing today.
City it's swelling.
And it is not life that is swelling;
is the price mechanism.
What we see today is not urbanization.
It is the withdrawal of life from space and its replacement by price.
LABOR, PENSIONS AND THE DETACHMENT OF HOUSING FROM ITS RIGHTFUL OWNER
At this point, the question is no longer “how was the city founded?”.
The question is this:
Who can live in this city?
Because the picture is becoming clearer and clearer:
There is a city but no access.
There is a house but no ownership.
There is income but not sufficiency.
And one of the places where this rupture is most visible is the issue of pensions.
There was a time in this country when there was a very simple equation:
work → retire → bonus + savings → buy a house
This equation was not perfect, but it worked.
At least the system didn't throw you out completely.
Today, the same equation has collapsed.
The pension is no longer a “start of life”,
in most cases survival support not even.
Not to open the door of a house,
often only enough to meet daily needs.
It is not just a matter of inflation.
This is a change in the place of housing in the economic system.
Because today it's housing:
- not a means of production
- not a means of shelter
- not a means of social security
is a class of financial assets.
And anything that falls into this class is naturally out of reach.
The critical break here is this:
Home is no longer “the thing to live in”,
value is something to be kept.
And when something becomes a store of value:
- becomes rare
- becomes difficult to access
- price breaks from revenue
At this point, the figure of the pensioner is the most naked indicator of the system.
Because he is retired:
- fixed income
- most vulnerable to inflation
- the most vulnerable
And if you're a pensioner:
- can't buy a house
- can't get a renovation
- struggling with rent
this is not an individual problem,
is a systemic rupture.
Within this rupture, structures such as the Housing Development Administration exist, in theory, as an element of social balance.
But in practice, unless the overall direction of the system changes, these structures produce only piecemeal effects.
Because the problem is not the institution,
is the economic logic of housing.
Likewise, municipalities are not outside this structure.
Zoning is no longer a city-building tool,
is a mechanism for generating value.
- density increase
- floor increase
- project expansion
These do not produce cities.
These generate prices.
On the state side, housing has been reduced to an indicator of economic growth.
Construction growth is presented as “success”.
But this success is this:
- house increases
- access is reduced
- tenancy increases
So there is production but there is no sharing.
What is happening today is not a simple economic imbalance.
It is the detachment of housing from its function of shelter and its transformation into a purely financial asset.
THE REALITY OF EMPTY HOUSING, CAPITAL FLOWS AND THE CLASS DIVISION OF THE CITY
It is now necessary to clarify this point:
The problem is not “lack of housing”.
Issue, is the detachment of the house from its intended use.
There is a strange contradiction in cities today:
On the one hand, rents are rising rapidly,
on the other hand, thousands of houses with no lights at all.
This contradiction is no coincidence.
This is a natural consequence of the system.
Because housing is no longer produced just for living.
The house has three different functions at the same time:
- value storage
- investment instrument
- speculative asset
When these three come together, the result is clear:
empty housing increases.
Because an empty house is not “lost”.
Inside the system that house pending valueDir.
This is where the issue of capital comes into play.
The housing market can no longer be explained by local dynamics alone.
Because housing:
- linked to the financial system
- linked to credit mechanisms
- open to investment behavior
into a being.
But the critical point is this:
This is not only an external issue.
The real issue is that the system is that it has become too open to all kinds of capital flows.
This open structure:
- disconnects prices from real incomes
- makes access difficult
- magnifies urban inequality
And here the city quietly decomposes into class.
This divergence is invisible but sharp:
- those who can access
- those who cannot access
They live in the same city, but not in the same city.
For one side, the city is an investment map.
Survival space for the other side.
The result of this divergence is this:
The city is no longer a common living space.
City, is a structure divided according to levels of economic access.
And why doesn't this structure correct itself?
Because this system is not just a mistake.
It also works like a balance mechanism:
- housing generates value
- this value feeds the economic cycle
- the cycle stimulates new production
So the system is a circle that closes in on itself.
The most invisible but most important indicator within this circle is this:
increase in vacant housing.
Empty housing:
- not a crisis
- not a side effect
- not a mistake
is the way the system works.
What is happening in the city today is not a housing crisis.
It is the transformation of the city from a place of use into a place of value.
HOW TO BREAK THIS PATTERN?
Now the complaining is over.
Because we need to see this clearly: This is not “market volatility”.
This one, an established and sustained housing regime.
And such a regime will not fix itself.
1. NOTHING WILL BE FIXED WITHOUT CHANGING THE DEFINITION OF HOUSING
Today's fundamental problem is not one of price, but of definition.
Housing now:
- Investment
- value retention
- financial asset
is seen as.
This definition remains unchanged:
- price will not fall
- access does not increase
- rents are not stabilized
Because investment logic demands this:
create scarcity, the value goes up.
The logic of housing demands this:
expand access, make life possible.
These two logics do not work together in the same system.
2. MUST FACE THE REALITY OF EMPTY HOUSING
If there are houses in the city but people are becoming homeless, the problem is not production.
The problem is a hoarding economy.
That's why:
- serious tax on empty housing
- additional cost for a house that is not used for a long time
- limit to speculative holding
no model that does not produce a solution.
Because today the system determines the winner like this:
it's not the one who sits, it's the one who waits.
3. SOCIAL HOUSING SHOULD BE A SYSTEM, NOT A PROJECT
Social housing is not a campaign.
The Housing Development Administration may be one of the main actors in this structure, but it cannot produce solutions on its own.
A true social housing system requires:
- integrated production into the city
- permanent rental housing model
- revenue-based access
- long-term planning
It is not a production model tied to the election period,
a permanent housing policy.
4. THE ROLE OF MUNICIPALITIES MUST BE REDEFINED
Municipalities today are just that:
- licensor
- regulating zoning
- project approver
structures.
Whereas in the modern city, it is the municipality:
- producing housing
- managing stock for rent
- providing social balance
has to be an actor.
Otherwise the city cannot be governed,
the city is only marketed.
5. THE SYSTEM CANNOT BE FIXED WITHOUT BREAKING THE LAND AND RENT ISSUE
The harshest truth is here:
The price of housing is not the building, determines the plot.
That's why:
- without controlling land speculation
- without transparency in planning
- without establishing a public land policy
no solution can be permanent.
IT'S NOT A CRISIS, IT'S A MODEL
This is what happened today:
- not unplanned
- not temporary imbalance
- not a technical error
is the result of an economic model.
And the name of this model is clear:
The transformation of housing from shelter into a financial asset.
This country can either rebuild housing right as the "most important
Or cities can be completely investment showcase,
and the people will be the ones left out of that showcase.
And these two cannot live together in the same city.