High rents force migration in Antalya: Civil servants and tourism workers are leaving the town

The rental prices that have tripled in Antalya in the last year have forced citizens, civil servants and tourism workers living in the city to migrate from the city where they have been living for years.

According to BETAM data, while rents across the country increased by 166.4 percent in the last year, the highest increase was experienced in Antalya with 193.3 percent.

According to the data announced by the Central Bank yesterday, Antalya is one of the provinces where housing prices have also increased the most. Nationwide, housing prices broke a record by increasing by 184.6 percent year-on-year in September, while they rose by 235.8 percent in Antalya.

Especially after the war, when prices increased sharply as a result of the intense demand of the Russians for the city, the migration of residents accelerated.

An official speaking to media said officers had begun to ask for appointments to provinces where they could find more affordable rents; officers who wanted to come to Antalya had stopped coming to the city due to rental prices straining their budgets.

An official from Antalya Chamber of Realtors said that the residents of the center had migrated to the villages, while another official explained that a significant part of thousands of qualified tourism employees had begun to leave the city because the homeowners wanted them to evacuate.

CIVIL SERVANTS WANT TO BE ASSIGNED TO AFFORDABLE PROVINCES

It is also reported that civil servants who could not get along in Antalya and wanted to move to the surrounding provinces to study their children were looking for a more affordable home. The officers who wanted to come to Antalya from outside the province earlier, quit because they coud not find a house at an affordable price.

‘TOURISM WORKERS HAVE STARTED TO LEAVE THE CITY’

The same official said that due to high rental prices, qualified tourism workers in the city had left the city and were looking for work, especially abroad.

He went on to say, “Tourism workers in Antalya work with wages in the average of 6-9 thousand TL. Rental prices are at least 6-7 thousand TL. A large number of tourism workers had to leave Antalya because they could not solve the problem of living and housing. Especially in places where tourism is more intense, such as Alanya, Manavgat and Kemer, this number is higher.”

Stating that tourism workers were experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel due to this migration, same official said, “Tourism labor is a profession. If you cannot find qualified employees, you cannot produce 5-star service in a 5-star hotel. A lower service also breaks the prices of your hotel.”