Real estate agents found a way to avoid penalties by deleting and re-uploading their listings.

The Ministry of Commerce has tightly controlled real estate listings to ensure price stability. In inspections conducted in September, a total of 11 million 700 thousand lira in administrative fines was imposed on 117 real estate businesses that were found to have exorbitant price increases. Following this, real estate agents across Turkey found a new way to avoid penalties. Knowing that they would be caught by the Ministry if they increased prices on existing listings, agents are deleting the current listings and creating new ones with the new prices.

"THEY EVEN CHANGE THE PHOTOS FOR THE SAME HOUSE"

According to Hürriyet's report, Hakan Akçam, President of the Ankara All Real Estate Agents Professional Chamber (ATEM), stated that the 'delete-readd' model has been frequently applied in real estate listings in recent weeks. "When a price increase is made on the same listing, the likelihood of being caught is very high, so they choose to delete and re-add. They even change the listing photos because if they are the same, they will also be caught. But the point that should not be forgotten here is this; the value of the house is determined not by the real estate agent but by the homeowner. If there is a real estate office that engages in opportunism and makes unrealistic price increases, it should certainly be penalized. But the homeowner who demands that price should also face the same penalty," he said.

"A NEW ERA IN REAL ESTATE LISTINGS WILL BEGIN ON JANUARY 1"

Moreover, a new era in real estate listings will begin on January 1. The Electronic Listing Verification System (EİDS), which was implemented as of September 15 and will become mandatory on January 1, 2025, will require real estate businesses to have a real estate trade authorization certificate to enter listings, and it will be mandatory for the property owner to authorize the real estate agent through e-Government.

MINISTER BOLAT: THE AIM IS TO CREATE A FAIR MARKET

Commerce Minister Ömer Bolat stated, "Our ministry is meticulously continuing its efforts to eliminate consumer grievances arising from speculative price increases that are far from reality in the real estate sector and to re-establish a fair, competitive, and stable market structure in the sector." In this context, he reminded that under the regulation published on August 31, those who post listings on sites are required to perform identity and authorization verification, and this came into effect on November 1.