Ministry of Trade Fines Real Estate Sector 88.9 Million Lira

The Ministry of Trade made important statements regarding the activities and administrative fines imposed on the real estate sector. The Ministry continues its inspections uninterruptedly in order to establish a fair, competitive and stable market structure in the sector, to ensure quality service delivery and to prevent consumer victimization.

Amendments to the Regulation on Real Estate Trade

With the amendments made under the Regulation on Immovable Property Trade, new obligations have been introduced for advertisement platforms. In this context, the obligation to verify the identity information of the advertiser and to verify that the real estate subject to the advertisement belongs to or is authorized by the advertiser was introduced.

Electronic Advertisement Verification System (EIDS)

In the first phase, the identity verification of persons wishing to place real estate advertisements was started to be carried out through the Electronic Advertisement Verification System (EIDS) established within the Ministry of Trade with the integration of advertisement platforms. In the second phase, authorization verification is planned to be carried out through EİDS, and technical work is ongoing. When the application is activated, only real estate businesses with authorization certificates will be able to enter advertisements.
 

Inspections and Administrative Fines

The Ministry of Trade continues to intensively inspect the real estate sector in order to prevent unregistered activities and unfair competition. As a result of these inspections, 29,221,612 TL administrative fines have been imposed so far on businesses engaged in real estate trade without an authorization certificate.

In addition, within the scope of combating manipulative price increases that disrupt the market balance, 737 real estate businesses were fined 73,700,000 TL between October and December 2023, 45 real estate businesses were fined 4,500,000 TL in January 2024, and a total of 782 businesses were fined 78,200,000 TL. In June 2024, another 107 businesses were fined 10,700,000 TL, bringing the total amount of fines to 88,900,000 TL.

Conclusion and Future Plans

The Ministry of Trade will continue its inspections without slowing down in order to ensure a fair, competitive and stable market structure in the real estate sector, to prevent manipulative price increases and to prevent consumer victimization. It is of great importance that all businesses operating in the real estate sector comply with these rules and avoid practices that disrupt the market balance.