|
|
Social
Housing in North Cyprus |
|
|
|
I. Introduction
|
|
Social housing is not a novel issue for the Turkish Cypriots. Even before the
First World War, we witness an important social housing scheme implemented in
Nicosia. Therefore, before starting to analyse recent developments on this issue,
it is important to mention the past developments.
|
|
|
|
II. Social
Housing pre-1974 Period
|
|
Starting in the 1930s, Nicosia, under the control of Nicosia Municipality. Rents paid by the occupants
to the municipality are below the average rent in the housing market.
Following 1964 Greek-Cypriot atrocities, a significant percentage of the Turkish-
Cypriot people had to leave their homes and move to more secure enclaves which were
under the control of the Turkish-Cypriots. The Turkish-Cypriots lived in these
enclaves, scattered all over the island. Refugees were temporarily housed in tented
camps, warehouses, schools and other governmental buildings. The housing and sanitary
conditions of the refugees need not be mentioned. Starting in 1965, the Turkish-
Cypriot administration developed a Refugee Housing Project to upgrade the
living conditions of at least some of the refugee families. Within six years, in
65 different urban and rural settlements, 1,513 dwelling units had been built
and allocated to the neediest families. Of these units, 247 had one bedroom, while
the rest had two. The floor area ranged from 46 m2 to 70 m2. Of the 1,513 units,
503 were prefabricated, while for the rest brick was used as the construction
material. At present, most of these dwelling units are still inhabitable and are
being occupied by low-income families. The government allocates these units to
eligible families and collects no rent.
|
|
|
|
Table 1. Houses built for the refugees (by Year)
Years
| 1966
| 1967
| 1968
| 1969
| 1970-71
| Total
|
No.
of Units
| 130
| 206
| 512
| 424
| 241
| 1,513
|
|
|
|
|
Table 2. Houses
built for the refugees (by District)
Districts
| Units
|
Nicosia
| 901
|
Famagusta
| 33
|
Kyrenia
| 111
|
Larnaca
| 116
|
Limassol
| 120
|
Paphos
| 232
|
Total
| 1,513
|
|
|
|
|
Table 3. Houses built for the refugees (by Type)
Floor
area (m2)
| 70
| 60
| 54
| 53.5
| 46
| 46
| Other
| Total
|
No.
of Bedrooms
| 2
| 2
| 2
| 2
| 2
| 1
| 2
|
No.
of Units
| 8
| 580
| 133
| 110
| 392
| 247
| 43
| 1,513 |
|
|
|
|
|
III. Social
Housing pre-1974 Period
|
|
In 1974, a military coup, backed by the then-government of Greece with an obvious
political intention to annex Cyprus to Greece, resulted in a military intervention
by the Turkish government, which exercised its rights and obligations as a co-
guarantor of the sovereignty and independence of Cyprus in accordance with the
1959 Treaty of Zürich and London. As a result, the Turkish-Cypriot population
which had been living in scattered enclaves moved and settled in the northern
part of the island, which was completely controlled by the Turkish-Cypriots, and
the Greek-Cypriots moved and settled in the South which was controlled by the
Greek-Cypriot. Population movement took place as a consequence of the Voluntary
Regrouping of Population Agreement, dated August 2, 1975.
Under United Nations supervision, a transfer of population took place -approximately
65,000 Turkish-Cypriots moved to the North and an estimated 180,000 Greek-Cypriots
to the South.
|
|
|
|
A. Post-1974 Period
End of the war in 1974 led
to the gradual economic development of the Turkish-Cypriot people so that by 1978
the government was forced to intervene in the housing market by enacting a Social
Housing Law in that year. Since then, more than 3,000 social housing units
have been built by the government and housing cooperatives in the major urban
centres.
B. Social Housing Schemes
According to the Social Housing Law, citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus are eligible to apply for social housing if they do not own a house and
do not have sufficient financial resources to build one for themselves. In addition,
the sanitary conditions of the present residence, the number of children and other
dependents, the ratio of existing rent to total family income and similar factors
are used for ranking eligible families. Finally, eligible families are required
to make a deposit of 15 or 20 per cent of the cost as a down-payment. The interest
rate for social housing loans has been 68 per cent. Occupants pay 20 per cent of
the interest and the government subsidises the remaining 48 per cent. As of April
1993, the interest rates reached 80 per cent, of which occupants pay 30 per cent
and the government the remaining 50 per cent. Occupants have the opportunity to
choose from four different repayment alternatives offered by government, so loans
may be scheduled over five, 10, 15 or 20 years. Those who can afford to pay more
can get their title deeds sooner. Traditionally, housing ownership has been regarded
as security and immovable property as an asset in which to invest. Therefore,
occupants of social housing are willing to repay their loans as quickly as possible
and get their title deeds. By 1996, 1,300 families had already repaid their loans
in full and become owners of their homes.
(1) Housing Co-operatives
The first housing cooperative estate was designed in Göçmenköy, a suburb of Nicosia,
in 1981, by Is-Coop (Workers' Cooperative Development Society) and Türk-Sen
(Trade Unions Federation). Between 1983 and 1989, 360 units were completed in
Nicosia by these two organisations. Four other housing cooperatives managed to
build 290 units in Nicosia for their members during the same period (Table 4).
Housing cooperatives have received financial assistance and building sites at
reasonable prices from the government. Many of the cooperative housing schemes
suffered from inadequate supervision during construction, incompetent administration,
poor design, inadequate coordination during infrastructure work, irregular progress
with construction and similar problems which discouraged further housing schemes
by cooperatives. Eligible families preffered the units built to satisfactory
standards and delivered in time by the government.
|
|
|
|
Table 4. Social Housing Schemes by Cooperatives
Name
of Cooperative
| Construction
Period
| Duplex
| Apartment
| Total
|
Is-Coop
& Türk-Sen
| 1983-89
| 330
| 30
| 360
|
Teachers'
Coop.
| 1983-85
| 136
| 32
| 168
|
Police
Coop.
| 1984-86
| 40
| -
| 40
|
Security
Forces Coop.
| 1984-86
| -
| 32
| 32
|
Soyak
Coop.
| 50
| -
| 50
|
|
TOTAL
| 556
| 94
| 650 |
|
Source: Department of Social Housing, Nicosia,
TRNC.
Note: All units are built in Nicosia.
|
|
|
|
|
(2) Government
Between 1984 and 1992, the government successfully implemented three housing
schemes and built 1,528 units (Table 5). Government programmes have been more
successful than those of cooperatives in terms of financing, the number of units
built, coordination, administration, design, quality and timely delivery. Recent
official announcements indicate that financial resources needed for the Fourth
Phase have been made available by the Turkish government.
Recently, the government has also launched a new project which provides building
sites and partial credit to those who want to build their homes in rural areas.
By 1996, 1,384 building sites had been allocated to eligible families for this
purpose. The aim of this approach is to encourage young couples to stay in rural
areas and to prevent rural-urban migration.
PHASE I: (1984-1986)
Phase I was financed by the government -258 out of 298 units built in this phase
were duplex and 40 were apartments. Nicosia ranked number one in terms of the number
of units (Table 6). The average cost per unit was approximately UK£12,828.
PHASE II: (1985-1989)
Phaqse II was financed by the Ministry of Finance in Saudi Arabia, and completed
in three parts -260, 300 and 488 units built in each part respectively. Of 1,064
units, 640 were located in Nicosia. The number of apartments is 184 (Table 6).
The average cost per unit was UK£13,000 - UK£13,450 (Table 5).
PHASE III: (1990-1992)
Phase III was financed by the government. Of 240 units built in this phase, 104
are located in Nicosia. All of these units are apartments (Table 6). The average
cost per unit was approximately UK£16,752 (Table 5).
PHASE IV: (1993-Present)
In Phase IV, 504 units are being financed by Turkey's Social Housing Fund and
632 units by the government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. All the
units are apartments, with 608 in Nicosia, 336 in Famagusta, 112 in Kyrenia, 64
in Güzelyurt and 16 in Lefke (Table 6). The average cost per unit is approximately
UK£14,188 for 85 m2 units and UK£10,016 for 60 m2 units (Table 5).
Table 5.
Cost of State Social Housing in North Cyprus
|
|
|
|
IV.
Conclusion
|
|
It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a low-income family to afford such
a dwelling unit even with the state subsidising the loan interest. Not surprisingly,
most of these units have been occupied by families who have managed to pay 15 to
20 per cent of the cost as a down-payment and have sufficient income to repay the
balance over five to 20 years.
Ownership of a car, colour TV sets, video recorders,
washing machines, dishwashers and modern furniture are reliable indicators of the
material well-being of occupants. These families could easily afford to repair
the units with no need of government help when required.
The smaller dwelling units
of Phase IV have enabled more families from lower-income groups to apply for
eligibility. Now the government plans to build houses for rent for those who cannot
afford to make the down-payment and monthly mortgage payments.
|
|
|
|
Table 6.
State Social Housing Projects in North Cyprus
|
|
|
|
Social housing schemes have achieved a great deal of what was expected from them.
The positive and negative sides of the implementation are lessons learned from
the past to be used to create better projects in future. Design of units, concerns
of energy-saving, the patterns of the building sites, emphasis on using more local
building materials, quality of workmanship, coordination, administration, eligibility
and similar aspects need to be analysed in more detail in order to allocate better
scarce resources and create livable environments for the community.
|
|
|
|
References
|
|
Adapted from Tamer Gazioglu's "Social Housing Schemes in the TRNC";
prepared in 1993 and revised in 1996; published in the Northern Cyprus Monthly -Kibris, Vol. IV, No. 5.
|
|
|
|
|
|