İstanbul Rents Double In 5 Years

Rental prices in Turkey's most populous province, İstanbul, have doubled since 2010, according to a recent study carried out by a real estate consultancy firm.

Amid several factors such as the continuously rising inflation rate, increasing demand as a result of a growing population and the influx of Syrian refugees into the city, individuals pay approximately TL 1,150 for an apartment for which they were paying TL 500 five years ago.

According to real estate consultancy company Altın Emlak, which has a 100 branches across the country, prices vary from region to region; however, they have almost doubled in all districts of İstanbul within the past five-years.

The general manager of Altın Emlak, Hakan Erilkun notes that while the average rent price for an apartment floor in Avcılar district was TL 550 in 2010, it has reached TL 900 today; while the average TL 525 for a rented flat in Bağcılar district had surged to TL 1,150. Erilkun said individuals who had been paying TL 550 for a month's rent in Beylikdüzü, now pay TL 1,050. The price in Bahçelievler, in the meantime, spiked from TL 675 to TL 1,350 in the same period.

“Syrians [refugee influx into Turkey] had a considerable impact on the upward trend in rent prices especially over the past three years. Some 600,000 refugees have come to Turkey since April 2011. [Out of those] 150,000 live in İstanbul. This has led to an intense demand for rentals and a price increase [in rents]. … Syrian demand has contributed to the price increase by at least 15 percent in certain spots such as Beylikdüzü and Başakşehir.”

Highlighting that a total of 7.6 million houses across the country were advertised for rent in 2014, Erilkun said the rental business is the heart of the real estate sector. “Rental transactions are the most important transactions in the sector as they are handled very fast, they create a dense circulation. … Around 5.5 million houses are rented a year.”

Arif Bayraktar, İstanbul (Cihan/Today's Zaman)