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Year-round city letting
Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Mersin, let on twelve-month contracts to people who live there. Steadier occupancy, domestic demand, and the easiest resale.
Property in Turkey · Investment and yield
Property investment in Turkey
Advertised yields are gross. The number that answers your question is what is left after a year of costs and the weeks the property stood empty.
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About this
Turkish property as an investment: how to work out what it returns
Gross yield, net yield and the gap between them
Gross yield is one year of rent divided by the purchase price. It is quick, it is comparable and it is almost always the figure printed in an advertisement, because it is the flattering one. Net yield is what remains after the property has paid its own bills and after the weeks it stood empty, and it is the one that answers the question you are actually asking. To convert the first into the second, take the annual rent, subtract every running cost for a full twelve months, subtract the rent lost to vacancy, then divide by the purchase price plus the one-off costs of buying. Compare turkey investment property on that second number and most of the noise disappears.
Two rental markets that behave nothing alike
Turkey has two rental markets and they share little beyond a currency. Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Mersin let to people who live there: twelve-month contracts, domestic tenants, students and employees, and demand that does not stop in November. The resort coast, meaning Antalya, Alanya, Fethiye, Kalkan, Marmaris, Bodrum and Side, lets intensively for roughly five months around the summer and very thinly outside them. Either can work as an investment. What does not work is a rental yield model built on twelve months of occupancy in a town where the restaurants close in October. Establish which market the property sits in before you write down a single figure.
Everything the property costs before it pays you
Write the cost side out for a full year first. Aidat, the complex service charge, runs all twelve months whether the property is occupied or not. Utilities are metered and climb with summer air conditioning and winter heating. There is an annual municipal property tax and compulsory DASK earthquake cover. If an agency finds the tenants and holds the keys it takes a commission. A let property has to be furnished, and furniture, white goods and linen are replaced on a cycle rather than bought once. Maintenance is not optional. Rental income is taxable, and the rates, allowances and filing rules must be confirmed against the Turkish Revenue Administration rather than a sales brochure.
Currency, liquidity and the stress test
Three things sit outside the spreadsheet and decide whether it holds. Rent is collected in lira while most foreign owners think in euros, pounds or dollars, so the exchange rate is part of the return and belongs in the model rather than assumed away. Liquidity is the second: property sells in months rather than days, and a niche property in a narrow market sells more slowly than one a Turkish buyer would also want, which usually matters more than a small difference in headline yield. The third is discipline. Run the whole model again at occupancy meaningfully below what you expect, and see whether buy to let turkey still makes sense when the good year does not arrive.
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Start here
The advertised yield is not the yield.
Annual rent divided by price is easy to print and easy to believe. What you actually keep depends on the service charge, the tax, the furniture, the empty weeks and the exchange rate on the day the rent lands. All of it is knowable before you buy, and none of it appears in a listing.
Where to look
Three ways to hold Turkish property
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Seasonal coastal letting
Antalya, Alanya, Fethiye, Kalkan, Marmaris, Bodrum and Side. Intense demand for roughly five months, very little either side of it, and a permit question to settle first.
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Buying for capital growth
Holding for the value rather than the rent: new districts, planned transport, restricted supply. A longer horizon, no income to cover the running costs meanwhile.
Before a reservation
A render sells a mood. A tapu tells you what you own.
We gather the facts behind a property first, then say plainly what holds up, what needs answering and what is simply unknown at this stage.
Title and rights
What the tapu says, which form of ownership it is, and whether the registry shows anything undisclosed.
The building
Construction date against the building code, whether the iskan is in place, and the state of the block.
The real cost
Service charge, utilities, property tax and insurance, written out as a yearly figure.
Getting out
Who the next buyer would be, and how long a sale in this district usually takes.
Investment and yieldInvestment and yieldGet a yield-checked shortlist
Your shortlist
A shortlist you can build a model on
We send the inputs rather than a promise: what the complex charges, how long the season really is in that town, and what similar properties are letting for now. You put them into your own spreadsheet.
- The full annual cost side for each property, written out line by line
- Realistic season length and letting pattern for the specific district
- Whether short-term letting is permitted in that building, before you reserve
How we work
We would rather send four properties that fit than forty that do not.
The first conversation is about how the property will be used, not about what is available this week. Everything after that follows from the answer.
The brief
How many months a year you will be there, who else uses it, and what you will not compromise on.
The shortlist
A small number of properties in districts that match, with the trade-off in each spelled out.
The checks
Registry, permits, service charge history and the questions to put to the seller in writing.
The purchase
Tax number, bank account, valuation report and the Land Registry appointment, in order.
Checks before you buy
Eight things a property should survive
Title, permits, contract, building age, service charge, season, management and resale. We are not your lawyer; we make sure you arrive at one with the right questions.
The process
Four steps, and no rush at the start
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Tell us the plan
Pick a messenger and leave a number. You may have a town in mind, or none at all.
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A short conversation
Months of use, budget range, timing, and the things that would rule a property out.
- 03
The shortlist
A handful of options that fit, with what to compare and what to check on each.
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The next step
Viewings, questions to the seller, and the paperwork in the right order.
Questions worth asking out loud
A property worth buying can take an awkward question.
Why this district?
Demand, season length, what is open in winter and what is being built nearby.
What does a year cost?
Service charge, utilities, tax and insurance, before anyone talks about yield.
What if plans change?
Use, letting and resale are worth discussing before a deposit, not after.
Who is the next buyer?
A property local buyers also want is a property you can sell.
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FAQ
Before the first conversation
What rental yield should I expect in Turkey?
There is no single national figure, and any site quoting one is selling something rather than telling you something. Yield varies by city, by district, by building and by whether the property lets for twelve months or five. The useful approach is to take the actual asking price, the actual rents being achieved on comparable properties nearby, and the actual annual costs of that specific building, then do the arithmetic yourself. We can give you all three inputs for anything on your shortlist.
Should the buying costs go into the calculation?
Yes, and they are routinely left out. Purchase taxes, land registry fees, legal fees and sworn translation are all paid once, at the start, and they raise the amount of capital the property has to earn a return on. The sensible treatment is to add them to the purchase price and spread them across the number of years you expect to hold, rather than treating them as a separate inconvenience that happened before the investment began. Current rates and fees should be confirmed against the official source at the time you buy, because they change.
Can I let my apartment to holidaymakers?
Only with permission, and there are two layers of it. Short-term letting in Turkey requires a permit, and where the property sits in an apartment building the other owners have a formal say in whether that permit can be obtained. Both questions are answerable before you commit, and both are much harder to fix afterwards. If holiday letting income is central to why you are buying, settle the permit and the building consent before the reservation payment, not after completion.
Can a foreigner buy an apartment in Turkey?
Yes. Citizens of most countries can own residential property in Turkey in their own name. The limits are geographic rather than personal: purchases are restricted inside designated military and security zones, and there is a cap on the share of land in any one district that foreign nationals may hold. Both are checked before a reservation, not after.
Investment and yield
Ready for a shortlist that fits your plan?
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