Shahbaz Mavaddat, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Southern Europe and Central Asia director, has said Turkey is at a crossroads regarding mortgages and needs 7 million additional homes by 2015.

Mavaddat's comments came at the launch of the 2007 Housing Finance Conference, hosted by IFC and daily Dünya, yesterday in Istanbul. At the conference Turkish Banks Association (TBB) Chairman Ersin Özince said the financial sector in Turkey has been dominated by banks and will continue to be so, emphasizing that product diversity was among the most important vehicles to ensure the financial sector's growth and that housing finance was a great opportunity to this end.

Capital Markets Board (SPK) President Turan Erol said they will not consider the establishment of a governmentally secured mortgage system, pointing out that they would support the improvement of the Turkish system in addition to providing supervision, but would not provide a government guarantee.