Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoðan Bayraktar has called on construction companies to invest in projects outside of Istanbul, stating that profits in the country's largest real estate market are likely to dwindle.
Speaking at the second International Green Building Summit, the minister focused less on green building practices and more on how to sustain the country's booming construction industry, which employs around 7.5% of the country's workforce.
“Construction should now move into [newly] developing cities,” Bayraktar said as he recommended that construction firms currently focused on Istanbul look to Antalya, Aydýn, Bursa, Denizli, Gaziantep, Izmir and Manisa. Those cities will be the center of future growth, he said.
The minister also lauded the government's plans to build a sprawling 1.5 million person city from scratch on the northern European outskirts of Istanbul, a project which would also see a third Istanbul airport–which would also be one of the largest in the world–and a third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait integrate the city with Istanbul's Asian side. The satellite city would see new opportunities for developers to cash in on massive housing projects, public transportation contracts and other infrastructure, Bayraktar said.
The minister also expressed hope that the country's housing might become more energy efficient, telling the press that within the next decade the country's estimated $55 billion to $70 billion annual energy bill could be brought down by between $8 billion and $15 billion with inexpensive updates to the energy grid and energy-wasting homes.
Source: Today's Zaman
