The 2+1 house plan is perhaps the most popular option in Turkey. It is an apartment with two separate bedrooms and a living room with an American kitchen (or a living room and a separate kitchen in Turkish-style houses). Most often, 2+1 apartments have two adjacent bathrooms (rarely one or three), large balconies or terraces overlooking the garden of the complex. With the average area of 100-120 square meters, such apartments can be a good home option for a family of two adults and one or two children. However, it is profitable to buy 2 + 1 apartments not only for families with children planning to relocate or use it as a holiday home, but also for those who invest in real estate in order to make money on rent. Two-bedroom apartments in Turkey are excellent options for short-term and long-term rentals. In 2020, they are the third most popular among tenants option overtaken by 1+1 apartments and villas, which have become in high demand during the pandemic.
Family home floor plans in Turkey
Many residents of European and Middle East countries are thinking about buying an apartment in Turkey for relocation with their family. This decision was partly the result of the coronavirus outbreak. During the pandemic, Turkey has established itself as a country with the highly developed healthcare sector. While Europe's wealthiest countries were experiencing a medical collapse caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Turkey continued to open new hospitals and keep the infection under control. All this has led to the fact that today even nationals of European countries began to consider Turkey a country where you can safely and comfortably get through the pandemic. When planning to move to Turkey, foreigners most often buy family-style 2+1 apartments. The most popular cities and provinces of Turkey among foreign investors are Istanbul, Ankara and Antalya.
2+1 comfort class apartments
Buyers with a limited budget can purchase a 2+1 comfort class apartment in an ordinary Turkish apartment building without five-star hotel facilities. As a rule, such buildings have an elevator, a landscaped courtyard, parking, clean, marbled hallways. Prices for apartments in such houses are significantly lower than in luxury development projects, and the monthly maintenance fee for the building (aydat) is low too (15-50 TL). Another benefit of these apartments is that you can easily buy a secondary property that is completely ready to move in: with furniture, air conditioners, a water heater, household appliances and etc.
New comfort-class apartments are sold from the developer in fine finish, ready for furnishing and moving in. Fine finishing includes flooring (ceramics or laminate), double-glazed windows, interior and exterior doors, a complete set of plumbing fixtures, a kitchen set and sometimes built-in furniture in the corridor and bedrooms.
Buying a 2+1 comfort-class apartment is perhaps the cheapest way to move the whole family to the seaside home or to the new home in colourful and vibrant Istanbul.
How much does a 2+1 comfort class apartment cost in Turkey?
According to official data published at the end of July 2020, the average cost per square meter of Turkish housing was 2,514 TL (290 euros). The average return on investment is eighteen years. Thus, the average cost of a 2+1 apartment with an area of 100-120 square meters is € 28,000-35,000.
The minimum cost of a 2+1 apartment in Istanbul in 2020 varies from 120,000 TL (€14,000) to 545,000 TL (€62,000), depending on the district. The survey studied prices of 2+1 apartments available for a mortgage loan, above the ground floor, in houses not older than ten years.
The minimum cost of a 2+1 comfort class apartment in the resort cities of Antalya province is the highest in the country, because housing in the Anatolian region has risen in price over the summer of 2020 (on the wave of the mortgage boom) the most. The average cost per square meter of housing in Antalya was 2,825 TL (322 euros) in the summer 2020 and the average cost of a 2+1 apartment was 282,000-339,000 TL (32,000-39,000 euros). The average return on investment in comfort class apartments in Antalya is fifteen to seventeen years.
The Turkish Realtors Association (TUGEM) together with the largest Turkish real estate aggregator Endeksa have published a report with the secondary housing market stats. According to the published report, the average cost of secondary 2+1 comfort class apartments (with an area of 100-120 square meters) in the provinces of Turkey that are popular among foreign property buyers is as follows:
- Istanbul, average cost per square meter - 3,865 TL, payback period - 21 years. The average cost of a 2+1 secondary apartment is 386.5-463.8 thousand TL (€44,000-53,000);
- Izmir, the average cost per square meter is 3,095 TL, the payback period is 20 years. The average cost of a secondary apartment 2+1 is 309.5-371 thousand TL (€ 32,500-42,500)
- Mersin, average cost per square meter - 1,716 TL, payback period - 19 years. The average cost of a 2+1 secondary apartment is 171.6-206 thousand TL (€20,000-24,000).
- Ankara, the average cost per square meter is 1,914 TL, the payback period is 16 years. The average cost of a 2+1 secondary apartment is 192-230 thousand TL (€22,000-26,500).
- Bursa, average cost per square meter - 2,254 TL, the payback period - 19 years. The average cost of a secondary apartment 2 + 1 is 225.4-270.5 thousand lira (€26,000-31,000).
2+1 luxury apartments
Luxury apartments, penthouses and duplexes are stylish apartments with fine high-quality finishing, located in residential complexes with resort, spa and fitness facilities. Residents of luxury complexes are offered a landscaped, protected area with a tropical, well-kept garden, a swimming pool, places for family recreation, sports, children's playgrounds. Many luxury development projects (especially in seaside resort cities where foreigners most often invest in Turkish real estate) also have spa and fitness centers: with gyms, a sauna, a hammam, a Roman steam room, a heated winter pool, massage rooms and many others. In large residential complexes, the number of facilities can reach two or three dozen!
- 2+1 apartments are one-level luxury apartments in fine finishing, with a separate or (more often) American kitchen (when the kitchen area is combined with the living room) with large balconies and terraces, two bathrooms;
- 2+1 penthouses are two-storey apartments (located on the two upper floors of a residential complex) with a separate or American kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, with panoramic terraces on both floors (with access to the roof), with two or three combined bathrooms, one of which often has a jacuzzi bath;
- 2+1 duplexes are duplex apartments in Turkey on any except for the upper floors of a complex. The garden duplexes (the lower two floors of a complex) have their own access to the communal garden or even their own independent garden area. Upside-down duplexes (and penthouses) are when the entrance to the apartment from the common hallways as well as the bedrooms are on the upper floor and the living room (and exit to the garden) is on the lower.
Are duplex apartments affordable for buyers with limited budget? Yes, because duplexes and penthouses can be both "luxury" or "premium" options as well as comfort class options (in average Turkish apartment buildings), so even with a limited budget, you can still buy a penthouse apartment in Turkey (2 +1 or even 1+1) or a garden duplex.
2+1 apartments in new buildings
New luxury 2+1 apartments in Turkey are sold from the developer and equipped with main and spot lighting, double-glazed windows, interior and exterior doors, marble, ceramic or laminate flooring, stylish kitchen sets with granite countertops, a complete set of plumbing in bathrooms and toilets. Often as a bonus from a developer there is new white household appliances: a washing machine, a stove with a hood and an oven, a dishwasher, and an instantaneous water heater. You can also buy a new luxury apartment fully furnished, equipped with household appliances, air conditioning and a water heater. Developers usually offer several fully furnished and ready-to-move-in apartments (so-called showrooms). They are offered to those who want to move in or rent out an apartment immediately after the transaction. The cost of a furnished 2+1 apartment is usually €5,000-10,000 more than the cost of an unfurnished one.
Secondary 2+1 apartments for sale in Turkey
Secondary luxury 2+1 apartments are mostly sold with used furniture, household appliances and climate control equipment from the previous owner. The cost of furnishings in such cases is included in the price of an apartment. Those who do not want to spend time and money on furnishing and equipping apartments look for furnished resale options from European owners. The ideal option in this case is when an apartment was not rented out, and the owner, a foreigner, used it as a holiday home. The cost of secondary 2+1 apartments is not always lower than the cost of new ones. The resale options may be larger in area, located in a prestigious area or on the front or second line: these factors directly affect the price of apartments in Turkey.
How much does a 2+1 luxury apartment cost in Turkey?
The minimum cost of one-level 2+1 luxury apartments in Turkey is 20-30 percent higher than 2+1 comfort-class apartments of the same living space. Most often, foreigners buy 2+1 luxury apartments in the Anatolian region:
- in Antalya (you can find a good secondary option for €50,000-55,000);
- in Mahmutlar (the cost of 2+1 luxury apartments in residential complexes up to 10 years old starts from €60,000);
- in Alanya (the cost of a secondary 2+1 apartment in the city center, within walking distance from the excellent Cleopatra beach starts from €90,000, in areas remote from the sea you can buy a 2+1 luxury apartment for €60,000-67,000);
- in Oba (the cost of 2+1 luxury apartments has grown significantly over the summer 2020 and now starts from €70,000 for a resale option in a good project);
- in Kestel (in a low-rise newly developed area, two-three-year 2+1 luxury apartments cost from €75,000-80,000);
- in Kemer (the cost of a 2+1 apartment in a luxury residential complex starts from €60,000).
How has the coronavirus changed the buying preferences in Turkey?
As the Turkish real estate newspaper recently reported, the months of quarantine have significantly influenced the preferences of property buyers in Turkey. Apartments with large balconies and terraces, as well as penthouses and duplexes, are in great demand. In June and July 2020, almost all old stocks of 2+1 and 3+1 duplex apartments were sold, which were not very popular before the pandemic. Garden duplexes became the sales leader - two-storey apartments on the lower floors with their own access to the tropical garden of the complex (from the lower terrace) or their own private garden area. The buyers of such apartments are residents of megalopolises tired of quarantine, who, as a result of months of self-isolation, realized the need to have their own piece of land where they can enjoy fresh air.
Moreover, due to the pandemic, the demand for the most spacious 2+1 apartments with huge balconies has increased in Turkey's cities. And the massive transition of city dwellers to remote work has led to a demand for a new type of apartments: with a home office instead of one of the bedrooms. Those who used to choose 1+1 apartments (a living room + a bedroom) now prefer 2+1 apartments (with a home office instead of the second bedroom). Another newest requirement for family apartments in Turkey is a spacious storage room. According to experts' forecasts, new projects of Turkish residential complexes will include a larger number of 2+1 and 3+1 two-level apartments with huge terraces and private garden areas.