The new head of Turkey’s central bank, Hafize Gaye Erkan, said she has been priced out of Istanbul’s property market by rampant inflation.
With no option, the former finance executive said she is compelled to move in with her parents.
While speaking to Turkey’s Hürriyet, Erkan said her decision was anchored on the increase in rents due to the lack of social housing — of which the country’s rising inflation is a contributory factor.
“We haven’t found a home in Istanbul. It’s terribly expensive. We’ve moved in with my parents,” 44-year-old Hafize Gaye Erkan, who took up her post in June after two decades in the United States, told the Hurriyet newspaper.
“Is it possible that Istanbul has gotten more expensive than Manhattan?” she said
Erkan had worked at firms including Goldman Sachs and First Republic Bank — and is now getting a crash course in the soaring prices that have seen many young people struggling to find lodgings.
In November 2023, Turkey’s inflation rose 62 percent year-on-year.
This followed a 61.36 percent annual increase in October — a trend triggered by the depreciation of the Turkish currency, lira.
