How Turkey’s lira crisis was written in Istanbul's skyline

Those observing Istanbul's construction boom will not have been surprised by last week's currency collapse - it's all based on debt

From a distance, Esenyurt, a newly built up neighbourhood on the edges of Istanbul, looks a bit like Hong Kong or Dubai, with a bustling downtown of shiny skyscrapers. Upon closer examination, however, you notice that tower after tower stands incomplete, lacking windows or furnishings; others are only half-occupied, their windows dark after nightfall.

"In the residential areas, 100% of the construction has stopped," says Mohamed Karman, a local estate agent, from his small office in the central square of Esenyurt. "Do you know why? The materials. Everything is in dollars, you pay in dollars."

Unless [Turkey] exports from time to time, they run into a crisis. It happens every 10 years.

We don't act on a long-term basis. The longest plan I saw in a Turkish company was two months

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