Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
PLANLAMA-PLANNING, cilt.28, sa.2, ss.143-153, 2018 (ESCI)
The importance of the economy created by the construction sector and the related sectors that support it has become more significant since the growth in the use of financial instruments. The influence of financial institutions has reached an unprecedented level in the shaping of the urban space with the implementation and acceleration of financialization. Geography and urban planning specialists have been at the center of the debate over financing in the United States as a result of the economic crisis that began in 2007. After the collapse of derivative markets due to the mortgage market, which was the principal cause of the crisis, the mortgage system and the urban space began to come to the forefront of financialization studies. These studies seem to be concentrated on the early capitalist countries. However, there is also a financialization process occurring in late capitalist countries such as Turkey, and this process can be observed in urban spaces. The present study aims to contribute to the financialization debates from this point of view, by evaluating neoliberal reforms, public policy, and housing market developments that were implemented in Turkey after the 2001 economic crisis. A mixed method of analysis was applied, as it offered options a single method cannot provide. This study first describes the problem, and then the methodology is explained. A brief discussion of the concept of financialization is presented, focusing on the urban space and mortgage loans. A literature review provides an analytical basis for assessing how the housing sector in Turkey is affected by the process of financialization, and the case of Istanbul, called the financial capital of Turkey, is examined. In a late capitalist country such as Turkey, where the mortgage market volume is quite new and thus not at a level that the sector desires, the possibility that the rapidly increasing amount of household debt will cause a new economic crisis should be investigated.