Ahmet Yaşar: ‘’We are striving to build resilient structures for our country.’’

Ahmet Yaşar, Vice President of the Insurance Association of Türkiye and President of Maher Holding Insurance Group, spoke at the Urban Transformation Summit From Every Angle, held on October 14, 2025, in Kayseri in cooperation with the Metropolitan Municipality and the Urban Transformation and Urban Planning Foundation. Yaşar stated that they are striving to build resilient structures for the country.The insurance sector was represented at the summit by Ahmet Yaşar, Vice President of the Insurance Association of Türkiye (TSB) and Chairman of Maher Holding Insurance Group.

The “Urban Transformation Summit From Every Angle” was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the Urban Transformation Directorate, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, and the Urban Transformation and Urban Planning Foundation (KENTSEV). Held on 14 October 2025 at the Kayseri Kadir Has Congress Center, the summit brought together local governments, public institutions, foundations, and sector stakeholders from all across Türkiye. The program was attended by Governor Gökmen Çiçek, Metropolitan Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Urban Transformation Director Hakkı Alp, district mayors, and institutional representatives. At the summit, which Quick Sigorta sponsored, resilient cities and the Building Completion Insurance came to the forefront.

Speaking before the panel held as part of the summit, Kayseri Governor Gökmen Çiçek said: “The places we think are safest can, if we fail to take precautions or carry out work on buildings, become the cause of tragedy for our children and loved ones. We were deeply affected by the earthquake. I am pleased to see that an urban transformation effort has long been underway in Kayseri. Because we have a fault line here. We truly felt the shaking. But of course, we must not stop. We must continue and even accelerate these efforts,” he said.

WE ARE ALL AWARE

Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç said, “Two magical words: urban transformation. We all like the sound of it. It sounds pleasant to everyone’s ears. However, once you get into the process, you see that it is not that easy. During the earthquake that affected 11 provinces—of which our Kayseri was significantly impacted—we, as a city, were practically tested. We all witnessed the rightful outcome of the practices we implemented with an uncompromising approach. This shows that we must not compromise, we must not make concessions. By facilitating processes for our citizens and emphasizing the importance of complying with regulatory practices, we are all aware that we must move forward by ensuring that buildings without occupancy permits are addressed.”

Hakkı Alp, Head of Urban Transformation at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, also spoke: “Since the day of the disaster, in the 11 provinces affected by the catastrophe of the century, a total of 452,000 independent units have been under construction. Of these, 304,000 were delivered last month in a ceremony attended by our President. The delivery of 304,000 independent units to our earthquake-stricken citizens has been completed. By the end of the year, all 452,000 independent units will be delivered to our disaster-affected citizens.”

WE ARE STRIVING TO BUILD A RESILIENT BUILT ENVIRONMENT FOR OUR COUNTRY

Ahmet Yaşar, Vice President of the Insurance Association of Türkiye and President of Maher Holding Insurance Group, said in his speech at the summit:“Türkiye is an earthquake-prone country. To protect ourselves from earthquakes, we need resilient buildings. And the way to achieve resilient buildings is through urban transformation.  In this transformation process, building completion insurance comes to the forefront.”

Emphasizing that people want access to safe housing, Yaşar continued: “But they want to reach this safely. Since 2018, with the infrastructure and model it has established, Quick Sigorta has been striving to protect the risks in urban transformation projects or off-plan (pre-construction) sales through building completion insurance. Our goal is to ensure that our country gains resilient structures. At this point, more than 1.5 million housing units need to be renewed in Istanbul alone. Kayseri and its districts also need urban transformation. The only element that will pave the way for urban transformation and ensure its rapid progress is building completion insurance. At the events we organize, we explain both the concept of building completion insurance and its role within urban transformation. “We are striving to make our country a place of resilient structures,” he said.

KENTSEV President Dr. Haldun Ersen also said: “We extend our sincere thanks to the Maher Holding family and Quick Sigorta for their support of urban transformation. Quick Sigorta is working to establish building completion insurance — which is extremely important for urban transformation — in Türkiye. As a foundation, we follow developments in urban transformation and convey them to the public and private sectors. Communication and sharing are very important for urban transformation. We have been working in this direction for 13 years. So far, we have held 17 summits, and in Kayseri, we organized the 18th one. From now on, we will continue under the ‘Kentfast’ brand, which we will develop for city technologies and the infrastructure of cities,” he said.

QC İnşaat General Manager Emin Murat Kan also stated: “Quick Sigorta had signed a building completion insurance agreement in April for a 400-unit housing project in Kayseri. We are now carrying out routine inspections. Is the construction progressing at the required quality? Is the contractor fulfilling the terms of the contract? We are conducting audits on all of these,” he said.