Limitations of Housing Research Data in Turkey and Proposals for a Better System

Abstract

Housing research depends on data availability. If robust, consistent, and comparable data are not available, housing studies can be limited in many aspects. In countries like the Netherlands and the United States, planners rely on state-led and freely provided (in most cases) data. However, in Turkey, the Turkish Statistical Institute, the primary data provider in the country, has limited data provision for urban studies in general and housing research in particular. Hence, housing research in Turkey is able to focus on particular aspects of the housing system with certain geographical/population coverages but is unable to elaborate some other features at all as a result of data unavailability. This chapter discusses the available data for housing research in Turkey with reference to successful examples of data collection and provision for housing research from different countries. As continuous and robust data are a must for better research, this is an important topic to explore. Finally, the limitations that housing researchers may face are examined. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ö. Burcu Özdemir Sarı, Esma Aksoy Khurami and Nil Uzun.