High Demand for Property to Rent in Turkey

There has been an increase in demand for rental properties in Turkey’s large cities as more foreigners immigrate to the country. This demand is pushing for the increase of rentals in various cities especially Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa and Antalya. 

In as much as the gradient of the rental increase is slow, many tenants were affected immensely. The legal annual cap that was introduced by the government is 25%, however, some landlords ignore this by increasing the rentals exorbitantly throughout the rental contract period. 

In Istanbul, the rents increased by 144 percent to 10.299 TL in the past year, 154 percent for Izmir to 6.932 TL while in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey has an increase of 163 percent to 5.466 TL.

Many Russians and Ukrainians have started moving to Turkey and have shown an interest in real estate investment since the war began in Ukraine. On the 16th of November 2022, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) reported that 1.16 million houses were sold in Turkey, a 6.7 percent increase from the previous year. TUIK also reported that 5.400 houses were bought by foreigners in 2022 indicating an 8.8 percent decrease from 2021.

The Hurriyet Daily News reported that Russians, Iranians, and Iraqis bought most of the property, investing in 2.023 units, 498 units, and 310 units respectively. Most houses were sold in the largest city, - Istanbul, with 17.000 properties sold, 8.200 in Ankara and 6.300 properties in Izmir. House sales to foreigners in the first ten months of 2022 grew 27 percent year-on-year to 55.021 units.

Sales for mortgage-financed properties dropped nearly 53 percent to 13.300 units last month on an annual basis.