Citizens who turn to their pillows due to lack of confidence in the economy protect their savings with their own means – Last Minute Economic News

Due to increasing security concerns and uncertainties in the economy, citizens prefer pillow gold for their savings such as foreign currency and gold, which has increased the demand for both home and safe deposit boxes. Safe deposit boxes cannot be found in banks in metropolitan cities. The uncertainty that has increased in Turkey due to the domestic and foreign policies implemented by the AKP in recent years is also reflected in the citizens’ savings preferences. Frequently changing policies in the economy increased insecurity, and with the addition of the COVID epidemic period, the need for cash increased. There has been a 30 percent increase in the need for safes every year for the last five years.

The average rent for safe deposit boxes in banks is around 8 thousand TL per year. An insurance fee and a deposit are also added to this price. As for home safes, qualified safes can be purchased for a price between 30-40 thousand TL. Citizens who cannot find safe deposit boxes in banks at these prices run to home safes. Home safe manufacturers and dealers state that the increase in demand, which started in 2016, continues with a growth of 25-30 percent every year. While approximately 10 thousand “unqualified” simple safes were sold annually in Turkey 10 years ago, today this figure has turned into approximately 30 thousand “qualified” high security safes per year.

Hasan Mavuş, General Manager of Yale Home Turkey, Central Asia and the Caucasus, one of the important brands of home safe production, stated that the increase in demand first started with the downing of the Russian plane in 2016 and fears in the economy increased. Saying that the demand has continued without decreasing since then, Mavuş listed the reasons that increased the demand as follows:

NO TRUST IN THE PUBLIC

“Especially at that time, our people were also afraid when banks were closed in countries such as Lebanon. People wanted to keep money at home. There was a change in the insurance law, and if you had a licensed safe at home, all your losses were covered if the contents of the safe were stolen. These two situations had directed people to safes, but when the pandemic happened and the earthquake happened, everyone started to think ‘a safe at home is a must’.”

Özdal Işıktaş, representative of Baygün Hırdavat, the authorized dealer of large safe companies, said: “As the dollar increases, our safe sales increase. “We can see the increase the very next day,” he said. Özdal said that as money loses value with inflation, the size of the safes sold also increases, adding: “There used to be 30-40 cm safes in homes, but now sales start from at least 60 cm. Our sales have been increasing by 30 percent every year for the last three years. There are also watch cases in the industry. Demand increased there too. “The demand for storing gold and watches instead of cash has also increased,” he said.

Evaluating the increasing demand for safe deposit boxes, former Deputy General Manager of Ziraat Bank, Şenol Babuşcu, emphasized that safe deposit boxes are unprofitable for banks and said, “The cost of safe deposit boxes is high, but the profit is low. For this reason, new safes are not produced in the industry. “When the demand increases, of course it is not enough,” he said. Babuşcu commented on the general demand of citizens to keep their gold and money themselves instead of depositing them in the bank as follows:

“It is an indication that citizens do not trust public administration. This trust does not come back easily. Keeping the promises made over time and implementing structural reforms may facilitate this trust, but it is impossible in the short term.”