The Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey (2026 Data)

The Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey (2026 Data)

The cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey depend on what is being measured, and the official statistics give two different answers. On cost of living, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK, Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu) puts İstanbul first and the south-eastern region of Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt last: its Regional Purchasing Power Parities (BSGP, Bölgesel Satınalma Gücü Paritesi) study for 2024, released on 29 December 2025, gives İstanbul an index of 112.6 and that region 91.5, with the national average set at 100 (TÜİK bulletin 57948). On the price of a home, the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (TCMB, Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası) reports the median price per square metre by province: for the third quarter of 2026 İstanbul is first at TL 90,844 per m² and Muğla second at TL 85,830, while Ağrı is last of the 76 provinces with a published figure at TL 21,958 and Mardin second to last at TL 23,174 (EVDS series Konut Birim Fiyatları, read on 18 October 2026). The national median for the quarter is TL 53,887.

The two rankings differ because they measure different things. The cost-of-living index prices a fixed basket of goods and services in 26 statistical regions and does not include the sale price of homes; the central bank series is built from valuation reports prepared for housing loans and ranks provinces, not regions. The result is that Muğla, in a region whose cost-of-living index (106.3) ranks fourth of 26, has the second-highest price per m², and that İzmir, second on the index, is fourth on price. This guide sets out both data sets in full, compares them with the arithmetic shown, adds housing sales, sales to foreign buyers and population by province, and lists the rules that apply to foreign buyers nationwide. Every figure carries its source and date, the figures marked calculated are derived from those sources with the method stated, and nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.

How the Rankings of the Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey Are Built

Three official sources sit behind the rankings, and each answers a narrower question than the headline suggests. TÜİK produces the regional price level index. The central bank publishes a quarterly price per square metre by province and a monthly quality-adjusted Housing Price Index (KFE, Konut Fiyat Endeksi). TÜİK also publishes monthly housing sales counts taken from the land registry of the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (TKGM, Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü), and an annual population count from the Address Based Population Registration System (ADNKS, Adrese Dayalı Nüfus Kayıt Sistemi).

The regional index covers 26 regions at the second level of the EU-compatible Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS-2, in Turkish İBBS, İstatistiki Bölge Birimleri Sınıflaması). Each region groups between one and six provinces, and the 26 regions together contain all 81 provinces. A region is therefore not a city: İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara are single-province regions, but the region that TÜİK codes TR32 covers Aydın, Denizli and Muğla, and the one coded TRC3 covers Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt. When this guide says a “city” is cheap or expensive on the index, it means the region that contains that province. The province-level price series is the only one of the three that names single provinces.

The central bank defines the unit price as the value of a property divided by its gross usable area, and the published figure for a province is the median of the per-m² values in the reference quarter after extreme values are removed, calculated only for provinces with enough observations (TCMB residential property price index metadata). The source data are the valuation reports that real-estate appraisal companies prepare when a bank approves an individual housing loan; the sale itself does not have to take place, and every appraised dwelling is included. The figure is therefore a median appraisal value and not an average of registered sale prices. Five provinces have no value in the series for any quarter from 2023 to the third quarter of 2026: Ardahan, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Hakkâri and Tunceli. The metadata states that unit prices could not be calculated for provinces with too few observations.

One conversion is used in this guide and it is labelled each time: United States dollar figures marked calculated are the lira figures divided by the Central Bank’s forex buying rate of TL 48.9303 per USD on 30 September 2026 (TCMB indicative exchange rates, 30 September 2026). The dollar column is therefore an arithmetic illustration at one date and not a central bank dollar price.

Cost of Living: The Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey by Region

TÜİK’s regional purchasing power study, the source of the cost-of-living ranking of the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey, was designed to show differences in the purchasing power of the lira across Turkey. TÜİK builds a regional price level index from a common, precisely defined basket of goods and services and expresses each region against the national average of 100: an index above 100 means the region is “expensive” and below 100 “cheap” relative to that average (TÜİK bulletin 57948). The 2024 edition was released on 29 December 2025 and is the latest regional edition on the TÜİK data portal as of 18 October 2026; the earlier editions listed there are 2017, 2012 and 2008. The 2024 results come from a new field survey, which is why they should not be read as a continuation of the CPI-extended years before them: the same TÜİK table gives, for example, the Balıkesir and Çanakkale region (TR22) 100.5 in 2023 and 108.0 in 2024, and the table footnotes show why: the 2018 to 2023 values were calculated by updating 2017 survey prices with the consumer price index, while 2024 comes from the new 2024 field survey.

The same downloadable table also carries a 2025 column. Its footnote states that the 2025 results are calculated by updating the 2024 field-survey prices with the consumer price index, so they are an update of the 2024 survey and not a new survey. Both columns are shown below. The ranking is the same at the top and bottom in both: İstanbul is first with 112.6 for 2024 and 111.8 for 2025, and the region of Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt is last with 91.5 and 90.7. Rank is given by the 2024 index; where two regions show the same value at one decimal, the three-decimal values in the TÜİK file decide the order (TR61 at 104.433 above TR51 at 104.417; TRC1 at 96.629 above TR63 at 96.625).

Read the table as ratios to the national basket. İstanbul at 112.6 means the basket that costs 100 on the national average costs 112.6 there, and the region of Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt at 91.5 means it costs 91.5. Dividing the unrounded index values (112.61 and 91.511) gives 1.2306, so a basket costing TL 1,000 in the lowest region costs about TL 1,231 in İstanbul (calculated). The gap between the highest and the lowest region is 21.1 index points. In 2024, 12 of the 26 regions are above 100 and 14 below it (calculated from the table); seven are above 104 (İstanbul, İzmir, the Balıkesir and Çanakkale region, the Aydın, Denizli and Muğla region, the Antalya, Isparta and Burdur region, Ankara, and the Tekirdağ, Edirne and Kırklareli region), and the spread among the other regions is small compared with the spread from 112.6 down to 91.5.

The highest and lowest regions in each spending group

TÜİK also publishes the index for each main spending group. The spread is widest in the groups where regional differences are largest, and the regions at the extremes are not the same in each group. The table gives the highest and lowest 2024 value in every group and the spread between them, which is calculated from the TÜİK table.

Housing, health and education show the widest spreads. İstanbul is highest in all three, with 147.3 for housing, 136.8 for health and 138.8 for education, and the lowest values are 73.8 for housing and 58.6 for education in the Ağrı, Kars, Iğdır and Ardahan region (TRA2) and 73.6 for health in the Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt region (TRC3). Food, clothing and transport vary far less. The Balıkesir and Çanakkale region (TR22) has the highest index for food (106.0) and for clothing and footwear (108.4), and İzmir (TR31) the highest for hotels, cafes and restaurants (113.8). TÜİK notes that communications show little regional difference because telephone and internet subscription prices are the same in all regions, and that the index for alcoholic beverages and tobacco lies between 99.6 and 100.1. The bulletin reports the index values and does not state the reasons for the differences.

The housing group needs a precise reading. The English title in the TÜİK table is “Rent, water, electricity, gas and other fuels”: it is the price level of housing as a consumption item for people who live in the region. It is not the price of buying a home. That is the main reason a high housing index does not map onto a high price per square metre, a point the comparison section below tests against the central bank data.

How the highest and lowest regions have changed between field surveys

TÜİK has run four full regional field surveys, in 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2024, and the CPI-extended years in between are not independent measurements. The table lists the highest and lowest regions in each survey year from the TÜİK category table. İstanbul is the highest region in every survey, with values between 112.6 and 114.8. The lowest region has been the Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt region (TRC3) in 2008, 2012 and 2024, and the Ağrı, Kars, Iğdır and Ardahan region (TRA2) in 2017, so the bottom of the ranking is less settled than the top.

What the index is not matters as much as what it is. It is not an average rent, a wage level or a measure of the cost of a single household; it compares the price of the same basket across regions at one date. It is also not a property price: the central bank data in the next section show provinces whose price per m² ranks far above or below their region’s index rank. TÜİK’s bulletin gives the index only at region level, so a province inside a multi-province region cannot be separated from its neighbours on this measure.

Property Prices: The Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey by Province

The central bank’s Housing Unit Prices series (EVDS data group bie_birimfiyat) is published quarterly for Türkiye and for provinces with sufficient observations. For the third quarter of 2026 it covers 76 provinces. The national median was TL 53,887 per m², which is +26.6% on the third quarter of 2025 (TL 42,549). İstanbul stands at TL 90,844, which is 1.69 times the national median (calculated), and the highest-to-lowest ratio among the 76 provinces is 4.1 (İstanbul against Ağrı, calculated). The tables give the ten highest and the ten lowest provinces with the change over the year and the dollar figure at the stated rate.

The ten provinces with the highest median price per m², 2026 Q3

Muğla is the only province other than İstanbul above TL 60,000 per m², and its rise over the year (+15.4%) is the smallest in the top ten, while İstanbul’s (+32.2%) is the largest. The list holds the three largest provinces by population (İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir) and seven others; nine of the ten lie on the Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean or Black Sea coast, and Ankara is the only inland province. The series gives provincial medians, so districts such as Bodrum in Muğla or Alanya in Antalya are not shown separately, and the central bank does not attribute the price levels to particular causes.

The ten provinces with the lowest median price per m², 2026 Q3

The bottom of the table is in eastern, south-eastern and southern Anatolia (Ağrı, Mardin, Malatya, Bitlis, Osmaniye, Kilis, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman and Şırnak), with Yozgat in central Anatolia as the tenth. Eight of the ten rose by more than 20% over the year, and Bitlis (+13.9%) is the slowest. In dollar terms at the stated rate none of these provinces reaches USD 600 per m² (calculated). Because the series is a median of valuation values with a minimum number of observations, a province with few loan-financed appraisals can move more from quarter to quarter than a large market; the five provinces without a figure show where the sample is thinnest.

The Housing Price Index and the rent index, September 2026

The quality-adjusted Housing Price Index answers a different question from the unit price: how much prices changed after controlling for the characteristics of the homes appraised. The central bank’s September 2026 bulletin reports that the index, with 2023 as 100, rose 1.2% over the month to 239.4 and was 22.3% higher than a year earlier in nominal terms and 5.7% lower in real terms (TCMB Housing Price Index and New Tenant Rent Index, September 2026). The real figure deflates the nominal change by consumer price inflation. The same bulletin reports the New Tenant Rent Index (YKKE, Yeni Kiracı Kira Endeksi), up 26.6% in nominal terms and 2.4% lower in real terms over the year. The index levels in the table compare each city with its own level in 2023 and cannot be used to compare absolute prices between cities: Ankara’s level of 265.2 above İstanbul’s 230.9 says only that Ankara’s index has risen more since 2023.

At regional level the bulletin gives the annual change of the Housing Price Index for 19 groupings of provinces and for Türkiye. İstanbul has the highest annual increase (26.8%) and the Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ region the lowest (15.3%), and the central bank’s bulletin names the same two as the highest and lowest for rents (35.5% and 18.8%). The table lists the areas that contain the provinces discussed in this guide.

Rent against price per square metre

The central bank also publishes the unit rent of appraised homes, defined as the rental value of the dwelling divided by its gross usable area (EVDS series Değerlemesi Yapılan Konutların Birim Kiraları). Both series come from the same valuation reports, so multiplying the median monthly rent per m² by twelve and dividing by the median price per m² gives a gross ratio that uses only central bank data. The ratio below is calculated for this guide: it is not a figure the central bank publishes, it is before tax, costs and vacancy, and appraisal rents are not contract rents. For the third quarter of 2026 the national ratio is 6.13%; it is 6.28% in İstanbul and 5.35% in Muğla, the province with the second-highest price per m², and it is 7.00% in Şanlıurfa.

The ratios in the larger cities cluster between 5.4% and 6.5%, which means the very different prices per square metre in the table above are matched by similarly different rents per square metre. The ratio says nothing about future price or rent changes; it is a snapshot of the ratio of two medians in one quarter.

Why the Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities in Turkey Differ by Measure

The two lists share a top (İstanbul is first in both) and a bottom (the south-east and east are last in both), but the middle differs. The table puts 14 provinces side by side. The region rank is the rank of the province’s region among the 26 regions by the 2024 index. The index position places the same index on the 76-province scale: each province takes the rank of its region’s index, provinces in one region share a position, and a tied position takes the highest rank among the tied provinces. The price rank is the province’s rank among the 76 provinces by median price per m² in the third quarter of 2026. The two ratio columns show how far each measure sits above or below its national benchmark: price divided by the national median of TL 53,887, and the index divided by 100. The last column subtracts the price rank from the index position, so a positive number means the province ranks higher on price than its region does on the index.

Twelve of the 14 rows are within five places of zero: İstanbul and Bursa are at zero, and İzmir (-2), Ankara (+2), Antalya (+5), Muğla (+3), Çanakkale (-2), Kocaeli (+5), Mersin (-4), Konya (+4), Gaziantep (+5) and Mardin (-2) are close. The two exceptions sit in the same region, which shows the limit of a regional index: Diyarbakır ranks 30th on price against a region position of 60 (+30), and Şanlıurfa ranks 70th against the same 60 (-10), because Diyarbakır’s median is TL 37,864 per m² and Şanlıurfa’s TL 27,042. Çanakkale (TL 54,269) and Balıkesir (TL 49,916) likewise share the index of 108.0 with different prices.

Across all 76 provinces the largest gaps arise in the same way, in regions that combine provinces with different price levels: Nevşehir (+31), Diyarbakır (+30), Aksaray (+24) are positive, meaning their price ranks are far higher than their regional index positions, and Burdur (-34), Düzce (-32), Bilecik (-24) are negative (all calculated). The second pattern is the size of the spread. The price ratio runs from 0.41 (Ağrı) to 1.69 (İstanbul), a factor of 4.1, while the index ratio runs from 0.92 to 1.13, a factor of 1.23: the index compresses differences that the price series shows in full. Muğla’s price is 1.59 times the national median against an index ratio of 1.06, and Bursa’s 0.79 against 1.03.

A rank correlation puts a number on how closely the two measures move together. Each of the 76 provinces with a price figure was given its region’s 2024 index, both variables were ranked with tied values sharing an average rank, and Spearman’s rank correlation was computed on the ranks. The result is 0.82 (calculated for this guide). A value of 1 would mean the index ranking predicts the price ranking exactly and a value near 0 would mean no relationship, so 0.82 means the two rankings move together strongly across all provinces while leaving large exceptions inside multi-province regions. The figure describes these two published series in this period and is not a forecast.

The housing group of the index is the closest link. İstanbul is highest on housing (147.3) and first on price per m², while the Ağrı, Kars, Iğdır and Ardahan region has the lowest housing index (73.8) and Ağrı has the lowest price per m². İzmir’s housing index of 143.9 is the second-highest after İstanbul, yet its price per m² ranks fourth of 76 behind Muğla and Antalya, whose regions have housing indices of 122.7 and 112.2. Neither TÜİK nor the central bank explains these differences, so this guide does not attribute them to causes such as tourism demand or second-home buying; it reports that the measures diverge and by how much.

Home Sales by Province and Foreign Buyers

TÜİK’s monthly housing sales statistics count transfers recorded in the TKGM land registry (TAKBİS), so they count completed registered sales and not listings or contracts. The September 2026 bulletin, released on 16 October 2026, reports 142,390 homes sold in September, 9.3% fewer than in September 2025: first-hand sales (ilk el, the first sale of a unit by the company or person who built it) were 51,519 (+3.9%), second-hand sales 90,871 (-15.3%), and 23,397 sales (16.4%) carried a mortgage (+5.1%). For January to September 2026 the total was 1,092,919, down 7.2% from 1,177,125 a year earlier, with first-hand sales of 359,913 (-0.6%), second-hand sales of 733,006 (-10.0%) and mortgaged sales of 212,210 (+24.7%) (TÜİK bulletin 58347). The next bulletin is scheduled for 17 November 2026.

A revision affects comparisons with older reports. TÜİK’s metadata states that a major revision of the housing sales series was applied from 2026 and that all data from 2013 onward were revised. The January 2026 bulletin for December 2025 reported 1,688,910 homes sold in 2025 (+14.3%), with İstanbul 280,262, Ankara 152,534 and İzmir 96,998 (TÜİK bulletin 58350). In the revised database read on 18 October 2026 the provincial figures add up to 1,760,292 for 2025 against 1,549,760 for 2024 (+13.6%, calculated), with İstanbul at 310,453, Ankara at 153,470 and İzmir at 100,084. The table uses the revised database throughout so that every column is on one basis; its totals for January to September 2025 and 2026 match the published bulletin.

Three provinces account for 32.0% of 2025 sales (calculated): İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Per 1,000 residents the order within this table changes, with Tekirdağ (35.6), Antalya (31.6) and Mersin (30.6) above Ankara (26.0), İzmir (22.2) and İstanbul (19.7); that column divides the 2025 sales count by the end-2025 population and is calculated for this guide. In January to September 2026 sales were lower than a year earlier in most of these provinces; Kocaeli (+1.0%) and Tekirdağ (+0.2%) are the two exceptions. The provinces with the fewest sales in 2025 were Ardahan (1,092), Bayburt (1,282), Hakkâri (1,556).

Sales to foreigners by province

Under TÜİK’s definition a sale to a foreigner is a sale to a person recorded in TAKBİS as a foreigner who is not of Turkish origin and not covered by Law 4112. Foreigners bought 2,167 homes in September 2026 (+9.9% on September 2025, 1.5% of all sales) and 15,308 in January to September 2026, 4.3% fewer than in the same months of 2025. In the revised database foreigners bought 22,980 homes in 2025, 1.31% of all sales (calculated); the January 2026 release had given 21,534 for the year, down 9.4% on 2024, with İstanbul 7,989, Antalya 7,118 and Mersin 1,800. The revised database shows 25,677 for 2024 and so a decline of 10.5% (calculated) for 2025; the direction is the same in both vintages, but a comparison should use one vintage only.

Foreign purchases are concentrated in a few provinces. İstanbul and Antalya together took 71.1% of the 2025 total and 73.3% of the January to September 2026 total (both calculated), and Mersin, Ankara and Yalova follow far behind. Compared with a year earlier, January to September 2026 sales to foreigners were higher in İstanbul (+2.9%) and lower in Antalya (-6.5%) and Mersin (-17.5%). The central bank figures in this guide show that the two provinces where foreigners buy most are the first and third in price per m², and that Muğla, in second place on price, has fewer foreign purchases (388 in 2025) than Mersin, Ankara or Yalova.

Foreign buyers by nationality

TÜİK publishes sales to foreigners by nationality. The nationality counts can exceed the number of homes sold, because a single unit can be bought by foreigners of more than one nationality, and the table should be read as buyers of each nationality and not as a split of the total. In September 2026 buyers from the Russian Federation took 388 homes, Iraq 166 and Germany 162 (TÜİK bulletin 58347). For 2025 and for January to September 2026 the top ten nationalities in the revised database are below.

The Russian Federation leads in both periods. Iran, Ukraine, Germany and Iraq follow in that order for 2025, and in the order Iran, Ukraine, Iraq and Germany for January to September 2026. China’s count for the first nine months of 2026 (877) already exceeds its count for the whole of 2025 (791), a comparison of the two columns.

Population by Province

TÜİK’s ADNKS results released on 9 February 2026 put Türkiye’s resident population at 86,092,168 on 31 December 2025, up 427,224 on the year, with the annual growth rate rising from 3.4 per thousand in 2024 to 5 per thousand in 2025 (TÜİK bulletin 53899). İstanbul had 15,754,053 residents, 18.3% of the total, followed by Ankara (5,910,320), İzmir (4,504,185), Bursa (3,263,011) and Antalya (2,777,677). The population of 33 provinces fell in 2025 against 40 in 2024. The table adds the change on 2024 and on 2015 from TÜİK’s province series, with the three smallest provinces at the bottom.

Population is a different measure from demand for housing: it does not show rents, vacancy, second homes or the registered address of people who live elsewhere. It does show where the number of residents is moving, and it shows that the provinces that gained residents fastest from 2015 to 2025 (Yalova +33.7%, Tekirdağ +28.8%, Kocaeli and Antalya +21.4%, calculated from TÜİK’s province series) include provinces with prices well below İstanbul’s and Muğla’s. In 2025 Antalya (+2.04%), Tekirdağ (+1.79%) and Muğla (+1.63%) grew fastest, İstanbul grew 0.33%, and Mersin and Adana, at +0.11% and +0.14%, were almost unchanged.

Rules That Apply in Every Province: Citizenship, Residence Permits and Costs

The legal thresholds for foreign buyers are national, so the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey change the area that an amount buys and not the amount itself. Citizenship by real-estate investment rests on art. 20(2)(b) of the regulation implementing the Turkish Citizenship Law, quoted on the Konya Investment Support Office page: a foreigner who buys real estate worth at least USD 400,000 or the equivalent in foreign currency, with a note on the title register that it will not be sold for three years. The threshold has applied from 13 June 2022 and was USD 250,000 before. The Your Key Türkiye service of the land registry authority states that from 12 December 2023 land without a building and agricultural land are excluded, and that the value is confirmed by an Amount Determination Document (TTB, Tutar Tespit Belgesi) based on a valuation by a company authorised by the Capital Markets Board (Your Key Türkiye, citizenship). The site’s overview of citizenship and immigration covers the application process.

The short-term residence permit route uses the Presidency of Migration Management’s document list for applicants who own property. It asks for an official copy of the title deed (tapu senedi), states that the dwelling’s value at the acquisition date must be at least USD 200,000 in lira equivalent, and requires a dwelling that the owner uses as a residence and not for rent or similar income. Foreign individuals buying property are also subject to the limits and exclusions that TKGM describes, including those for military and special security zones (Your Key Türkiye, acquisition by foreign individuals). The table collects the national rules and marks the one rule in this list that differs by location.

Two of the rules deserve a note. The title-deed fee (tapu harcı) is set in tariff (2) of the Fees Law No. 492 and is charged on the declared value in every province, on each side, at 20 per thousand in the applied column (Fees Law 492); the declared value may not be lower than the property tax value, and for foreign buyers the lira amount converted at the Central Bank is the value shown in the deed (TKGM announcement). The annual building tax rate is the one national rule that depends on place: art. 8 of the Property Tax Law sets 1 per thousand for dwellings and doubles it inside the boundaries of metropolitan municipalities and adjacent areas (Property Tax Law 1319), so the statutory rate differs between a metropolitan province and another one. The site’s property tax calculator covers purchase costs in more detail, and the guide to buying in installments sets out the payment-plan rules that apply nationwide.

The area that the thresholds buy is shown below, calculated from the third-quarter 2026 median price per m² and the rate of TL 48.9303 per USD. The calculation ignores taxes, fees, floor-area definitions in individual contracts and the fact that the TTB, not the median, sets the value counted for citizenship; it only shows how the same dollar amount compares with the price level in each province. USD 400,000 corresponds to about 215 m² at İstanbul’s median and about 891 m² at Ağrı’s.

Rental income from a short-term let is governed by separate permit rules; the site’s guide to Turkey’s Airbnb law summarises them. Hotel supply by province is covered in How Many Hotels Are There in Turkey, which uses the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s September 2026 table.

For a province-level view of the largest market, the site has an İstanbul city page and a listing page of apartments for sale in İstanbul, and the Türkiye country page gathers the pages for the other provinces.

How to Use the Data: A Neutral Checklist

The numbers behind the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey answer narrow questions and are easy to misread when combined. The checklist lists the checks that follow from how the sources are built; it does not rank provinces or suggest where to buy.

• Compare both ranks. Look up the province’s region on the TÜİK index and the province on the central bank price series. A large gap between the two, as for Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa in the comparison table, means the regional index does not describe the price of a home in that province.
• Check the series date. The index is for 2024 (with a CPI-updated 2025 column), the unit price is for the third quarter of 2026, the Housing Price Index is for September 2026, the sales counts run to September 2026 and the population is at 31 December 2025.
• Remember what the price series is. It is a median of valuation values for loan-financed appraisals, by province, in lira. It is not a registered sale price, it is not published for five provinces, and it is not split by district.
• Look at the quality-adjusted index separately. The Housing Price Index controls for the characteristics of the homes appraised; the unit price does not. Real changes depend on the deflator, so note which one a source uses (the central bank uses consumer price inflation).
• Check sales volume. A province with few sales in a quarter gives a thinner base for any price statistic. Sales per 1,000 residents shows which provinces are active relative to their size.
• Check the population trend. Falling provincial populations (33 provinces in 2025) and rising ones (Antalya, Kocaeli) describe different local situations that the national figures hide.
• Convert only with a stated rate and date. The lira series are in lira; any dollar figure depends on the exchange rate on the day, and the legal thresholds are written in dollars and converted at the Central Bank rate on the acquisition date.
• Use the national thresholds as fixed. USD 400,000 and USD 200,000 do not change with the province; read each source for the property types and conditions it names.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most expensive city in Turkey?

On the cost-of-living index, İstanbul: 112.6 in TÜİK’s 2024 study, 12.6% above the national average, and 111.8 in the CPI-updated 2025 column. On the price of a home, İstanbul as well: a median of TL 90,844 per m² in the third quarter of 2026 (TCMB), ahead of Muğla at TL 85,830. İstanbul is first in both rankings.

What is the cheapest city in Turkey?

On the cost-of-living index the lowest region is the one that contains Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt, at 91.5 in 2024 (8.5% below the national average). The index is published for regions, so it does not name a single lowest city. On the price of a home, Ağrı has the lowest median among the 76 provinces with a figure, TL 21,958 per m² in the third quarter of 2026, followed by Mardin at TL 23,174.

Which is the cheapest place to buy a home?

On the price ranking of the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey, the three lowest medians are in eastern and south-eastern provinces. By the central bank’s median price per m² for the third quarter of 2026, Ağrı (TL 21,958), Mardin (TL 23,174) and Malatya (TL 25,263) are the three lowest of the 76 provinces with a published figure; no figure is published for Ardahan, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Hakkâri and Tunceli. The series is a median of valuation values, so it describes the typical appraised home and not the cheapest available one.

Does the cost-of-living ranking predict property prices?

Partly. Across the 76 provinces the Spearman rank correlation between the 2024 regional index and the 2026 Q3 price per m² is 0.82 (calculated), which is strong. The exceptions come mainly from regions that combine provinces with different prices: Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa share an index of 94.8 but rank 30th and 70th on price. The index also compresses differences: the price ratio to the national median runs from 0.41 to 1.69, the index ratio from 0.92 to 1.13. The index excludes the purchase price of homes.

Where do foreigners buy the most homes in Turkey?

In İstanbul and Antalya. In the revised TÜİK database foreigners bought 9,101 homes in İstanbul and 7,237 in Antalya in 2025, together 71.1% of the 22,980 homes sold to foreigners that year; in January to September 2026 the figures were 6,533 and 4,693 of 15,308. Mersin, Ankara and Yalova follow.

Which cities qualify for Turkish citizenship by investment?

Every province can, because the threshold is national: real estate worth at least USD 400,000 or the equivalent in foreign currency, with a three-year no-sale note on the title register, with land without a building and agricultural land excluded since 12 December 2023. The city changes how many square metres the amount buys, not whether the route is open; the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change determines eligibility, as the regulation wording quoted by the Konya Investment Support Office states.

How often are the data updated?

The data behind the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey come at different intervals. The regional price index is produced in survey editions (2008, 2012, 2017 and 2024), with a CPI-updated column for later years in the same table. The central bank publishes the unit price quarterly (third quarter of 2026 is the latest) and the Housing Price Index monthly (September 2026 is the latest). TÜİK publishes housing sales monthly, with the next bulletin due 17 November 2026, and the ADNKS population results annually, the latest on 9 February 2026 for 31 December 2025.

Is İstanbul more expensive than İzmir?

On both measures. İstanbul’s regional index is 112.6 against İzmir’s 110.1 (2.5 points higher), and İstanbul’s median price is TL 90,844 per m² against İzmir’s TL 57,589, which is 58% higher (calculated). The difference in price is far larger than the difference in the index.

Do taxes and fees differ by province?

The title-deed fee, the foreign currency purchase certificate procedure and the citizenship and residence-permit thresholds are the same nationwide. The annual building tax is the exception on the statutory side: art. 8 of Property Tax Law 1319 sets 1 per thousand for dwellings and doubles it within metropolitan municipality boundaries and adjacent areas.

Why does the 2025 sales total differ between TÜİK publications?

TÜİK applied a major revision to the housing sales series in 2026 and revised all data from 2013. The January 2026 bulletin reported 1,688,910 sales for 2025, while the revised database read on 18 October 2026 gives 1,760,292. Compare figures from the same vintage of the series only.

Last checked: 18 October 2026. Sources: TÜİK Regional Purchasing Power Parities 2024; TÜİK housing sales, September 2026; TÜİK housing sales, December 2025; TÜİK ADNKS 2025; TCMB EVDS housing unit prices; TCMB EVDS unit rents; TCMB Housing Price Index, September 2026; TCMB RPPI metadata; TCMB exchange rates, 30 September 2026; Konya Investment Support Office, citizenship regulation; Your Key Türkiye, citizenship; Your Key Türkiye, foreign individuals; Presidency of Migration Management document list; Fees Law 492; Property Tax Law 1319; TKGM foreign currency purchase certificate announcement.