Real estate market in Turkey - statistics & facts
While the cost of buying a property began to fall in many countries lately, Turkey recorded the highest increase in house prices worldwide in 2023. Despite the soaring property prices, high inflation, and economic instability, the Turkish real estate industry has registered positive growth each year since 2015.
Meanwhile, the demand for office real estate has been growing, and the vacancy rates have been falling significantly in Turkey. In the first quarter of 2024, the vacancy rates of office spaces reached the lowest point since 2021, with 10.9 percent. As one of the most favored locations for commercial real estate, Istanbul recorded the highest rent among the major cities. As of the first quarter of 2024, the Etiler-Levent neighborhood of Istanbul recorded the highest prime office rents, at 493 euros per square meter per year.
Together with the construction industry, real estate is one of the leading sectors contributing to the Turkish economy. Even with escalating prices of properties and rentals, the market has been growing.
Housing market dynamics
In parallel with the recent increases in rents and the cost of buying, the value of residential real estate transactions has been rising yearly, amounting to nearly 46 billion U.S. dollars as of 2023. Accordingly, the average Turkish household consumption expenditure on housing and rent reached a record value of approximately 6,000 Turkish lira in 2023, more than doubling from the previous year. The government’s efforts to control the rent surge turned out to be insufficient. With the 25-percent-raise-regulation being over from July 2024, the rents will be determined according to the consumer price index, which was nearly 62 percent.House sales
Despite the unstable economic environment and reduced purchasing power for many people, house sales in Turkey have not shown an outstanding change over the past decade. After the peak in 2020, the total number of dwellings sold totaled about 1.23 million. Furthermore, the major city, Istanbul, reported the highest number of residence sales in 2023, at roughly 199,000. The capital, Ankara, was second, recording over 114,000 dwelling sales. Recently, Turkey has become an attractive location for foreigners to purchase property, either as an investment or for self-usage. Among various nationalities that secured a home in Turkey, Russians ranked first, as they bought nearly 10,600 dwellings in 2023. The Iranian, Iraqi, and Ukrainian citizens followed.Retail and office real estate
Since 2007, about 300 new shopping centers have been opened in Turkey. As of 2023, there were 446 shopping malls. Furthermore, the total rentable space increased constantly throughout the past decade. Malls in Turkey offered 14 million square meters of area to the retail stores to rent in 2023.Meanwhile, the demand for office real estate has been growing, and the vacancy rates have been falling significantly in Turkey. In the first quarter of 2024, the vacancy rates of office spaces reached the lowest point since 2021, with 10.9 percent. As one of the most favored locations for commercial real estate, Istanbul recorded the highest rent among the major cities. As of the first quarter of 2024, the Etiler-Levent neighborhood of Istanbul recorded the highest prime office rents, at 493 euros per square meter per year.
Together with the construction industry, real estate is one of the leading sectors contributing to the Turkish economy. Even with escalating prices of properties and rentals, the market has been growing.
