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Anyone scrolling through property listings in Turkey runs into the same codes: 0+1, 1+1, 2+1 and so on. What do they mean? What kinds of housing exist in the country, what is an apartment, a duplex, a penthouse, and how does a townhouse differ from a villa? Turk Estate answers these questions.
Content:
- How foreigners and Turks choose housing differently
- Villa or apartment: which to buy in Turkey
- What an apartment is
- How to read the floor area in a listing
- Duplex or penthouse
- Townhouses and villas
- Residences and other formats
- What makes a residential complex different
- Land plots
- Commercial property
- All types in one table
- What to check in the TAPU
- Popular questions
How foreigners and Turks choose housing differently
Turkish real estate comes in the same broad categories as anywhere else: apartments in residential complexes, duplexes and penthouses, villas and townhouses, plus land plots and commercial units. What differs is which of them each group of buyers picks.
Most Turks live in ordinary apartment buildings without shared facilities, which is why a well-served neighborhood matters more to them than a swimming pool inside the compound. Wealthier local buyers and foreigners choose gated complexes with a spa, a gym, several pools, cafes, shops and a security post.
Foreign buyers concentrate on the coast — Antalya, Alanya, Mersin, Kemer, Fethiye and Bodrum — and move to Istanbul, Izmir or Ankara mostly for work. Among Russian-speaking buyers the best-known areas are Mahmutlar and Konakli, both districts of Alanya, and Konyaalti in Antalya.
The purpose of the purchase differs as well. Locals buy to live in the property, foreigners often buy to spend part of the year there, to rent the unit out or to resell it later.
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Villa or apartment: which to buy in Turkey
There is no single answer, because the two formats solve different problems. An apartment in a complex is easier to keep: the grounds, the pool and the security are handled by the management company, the owner pays the aidat and can leave for six months. A villa gives a private plot, no neighbors behind the wall and freedom to rebuild, but it needs attention — the garden, the pool and the roof are the owner’s job.
Geography differs too. Apartments are built inside the city and closer to the sea, villas more often stand on hillsides and in the suburbs, where living without a car is inconvenient. So the choice usually comes down not to the type of property but to how many months a year the owner intends to spend there.
What an apartment is
An apartment, daire in Turkish, is a unit in a multi-story building, either in an older low-rise block or in a new residential complex. Developers normally sell them finished: with a fitted kitchen, a hob, an oven and an extractor, and sometimes with a dishwasher, a washing machine, a fridge and furniture. That is convenient for a foreign buyer, who does not have to look for furniture and fitters in an unfamiliar city.
The layout code is simple. The first figure is the number of separate rooms, and the “+1” is the salon, the living room merged with or adjoining the kitchen. Kitchens, bathrooms and balconies are not counted in the formula. On Turkish portals a studio is written the other way round, as 1+0.
| Layout | What it includes | Typical area, gross |
|---|---|---|
| 0+1 (1+0) | A studio: living area and kitchen in one space | 40 – 60 sq m |
| 1+1 | One bedroom, a salon with a kitchen, one bathroom | 51 – 70 sq m |
| 2+1 | Two bedrooms, a salon, one or two bathrooms | 60 – 115 sq m |
| 3+1 | Three bedrooms, a salon, two bathrooms or more | 100 – 160 sq m |
A closer look at the most popular layout, prices by city included, is in our article on 2+1 apartments in Turkey.
Turkish housing often has two or three balconies, and they can reach 30 sq m, which is why local families treat them as an extra room. The number of bathrooms follows the number of rooms: a budget apartment has one, while in premium units almost every bedroom has its own. Cheaper apartments come with a shower cabin, expensive ones with a bathtub.
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How to read the floor area in a listing
The gap between the area in the listing and the area you walk on is the most common disappointment at the first viewing. Turkish listings use three different figures, and the seller may quote any of them.
| Term | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Brüt (gross) | Interior space, walls, balconies and a share of the common areas on the floor |
| Net | Only the floor inside the apartment |
| Kapali alan | Enclosed area, excluding open terraces and balconies |
The difference between gross and net is usually 15 to 25%, and in buildings with wide hallways and large terraces it reaches a third. A 2+1 advertised at 120 sq m may well be 90 sq m of usable space. Ask for the net figure and check it against the plan in the project documents.
Duplex or penthouse
A duplex is a two-level apartment, and it can sit on any floor of the building. The Turkish market distinguishes two kinds: bahçe dubleks, a lower unit with its own garden and a separate exit to the grounds, and çatı dubleks, also called ters dubleks, an upper one with access to a roof terrace. Duplexes usually run from 110 to 200 sq m.
A penthouse is a premium duplex on the two top floors. Its defining feature is the roof area that belongs to the unit, where owners put a winter garden, a massage room or even a pool. Penthouses usually run from 115 to 215 sq m and often look out over the sea and the mountains.
There is no strict legal line between the two: in the TAPU both are recorded simply as mesken, that is, housing. The difference rests on the class of the building and on what comes with the unit — a roof terrace, a separate entrance, a private pool.
Townhouses and villas
In Turkey a townhouse is understood as a villa divided between several families. Each section has its own entrance and its own fenced plot, and the shared grounds normally include an outdoor pool and a sun deck. Townhouses run from 100 to 260 sq m.
A detached villa has a fenced green area and a private pool, and usually two or three floors, from 200 sq m upward. Villas stand either inside a residential complex, next to apartment blocks and townhouses, or on their own. Clusters of separate villas work like gated villages, with maintenance staff, security posts, gyms, spas and shops on site.
Listings use several more words for houses. Müstakil ev is a detached house on its own plot, with no shared grounds and no maintenance fee. Köşk and konak are old mansions, usually in historic districts and often subject to heritage restrictions. Yali is a waterfront mansion on the Bosphorus, the most expensive housing format in the country.
Residences and other formats
On the Turkish market the word “residence” is not a compliment but a category: a high-rise with hotel-style services — a reception desk, a concierge, cleaning, sometimes room service. Such projects are built in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
The practical consequence is the maintenance fee, several times higher than in an ordinary complex, because the staff payroll is built into it. What the aidat consists of and what it pays for is explained in our article on the cost of maintaining property in Turkey.
A separate category is apartments in complexes that hold a tourism license. They are sold for letting: the management company takes in the guests and shares the income with the owner. Renting out an ordinary apartment by the night without that license is prohibited in Turkey.
What makes a residential complex different
Residential complexes in Turkish cities are often built right next to individual houses, and a large part of the site goes to shared facilities: hammams, saunas, massage rooms, gazebos, pools, gyms, playrooms, spa salons and hairdressers.
The richer the infrastructure, the higher the monthly aidat. It is spread across all the apartments in the complex and does not depend on whether the owner uses the pool and the gym. In buildings without shared grounds there may be no aidat at all — the residents only chip in for the elevator, the cleaning of the entrance and the security.
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Land plots
Land in Turkey is bought mostly to build an individual house on it. The price depends on the location: a forest nearby makes a plot more expensive, and so do proximity to the city and the sea and the size of the parcel.
Land falls into two categories, and this is the first thing to establish. Arsa is a plot inside the development plan, with a designated use and a permitted number of floors; it can be built on. Tarla is agricultural land outside the plan, and a permit to build a house on it will not be issued.
Separate rules apply to foreign buyers:
- one person may own no more than 30 hectares of land, and anything above that requires government-level approval;
- foreigners together may not own more than 10% of the area of any one district;
- purchases are prohibited in military and security zones, so the land registry checks every parcel with the relevant authorities;
- a buyer of undeveloped land has to submit a construction project to the relevant ministry within two years and complete it within the approved period. If that does not happen, the plot is sold off and the proceeds are returned to the owner.
One more limitation matters to buyers who are after status: a residence permit is granted only for housing, a property registered as konut. A plot, a warehouse or a commercial unit of the same value does not qualify.
Commercial property
Commercial premises in Turkey sit either in business and shopping centers or on the ground floors of large residential complexes. Prices depend on the size and the location: a unit closer to the center costs more than one on the outskirts, because of the footfall and the transport links.
The documents name commercial units separately: dükkan is a retail unit with a shop window onto the street, ofis is an office in a business center, depo is a warehouse. The designation appears in the TAPU under “nitelik”, and it determines the electricity and water tariffs, which are higher for commercial subscribers than for households. The category cannot be changed without municipal approval, so buying an apartment for a cafe or a shop in the hope of re-registering it later is a risk.
All types in one table
| Type | What it is | Typical area |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment (daire) | A unit in an apartment building or complex | 40 – 160 sq m |
| Duplex | A two-level apartment with a garden or a terrace | 110 – 200 sq m |
| Penthouse | A duplex on the top floors with a roof area | 115 – 215 sq m |
| Townhouse | A section of a house with its own entrance and plot | 100 – 260 sq m |
| Villa | A detached house of 2 – 3 floors with a plot and a pool | from 200 sq m |
| Müstakil ev | A detached house without shared grounds | from 100 sq m |
| Residence | A high-rise with hotel-style service | from 45 sq m |
| Arsa | A building plot inside the development plan | from 300 sq m |
What to check in the TAPU
The type of property in a listing is marketing. Legally an object is defined by two lines in the title deed.
The first is the kind of deed. Kat mülkiyeti means the building has been completed and accepted, the iskan has been issued and the apartment exists as a separate unit. Kat irtifakı means the building is still going up or has not passed inspection, and until the iskan is issued permanent utility meters cannot be connected.
The second is the nitelik, the designation: mesken (housing), dükkan, ofis, arsa, tarla. It is this line, not the word “penthouse” or “residence” in the advertisement, that determines the tariffs, the taxes and whether the property can be lived in.
What exactly the document contains and how to read it is covered in our separate article on the TAPU.
“Foreigners choose by the picture and by the word in the listing, and the dispute afterwards is always about two lines in the TAPU: the form of ownership and the designation. Those are what to check, not the number of pools in the complex,” a specialist in transaction support in Turkey says.
Popular questions
What does 2+1 mean in Turkey?
Two separate rooms plus a salon, the living room merged with the kitchen. Bathrooms and balconies are not part of the code. On Turkish websites a studio is written as 1+0.
How is a duplex different from a penthouse?
A duplex is any two-level apartment and can be on the ground floor with a garden. A penthouse is a duplex on the two top floors with its own roof area. In the TAPU both are recorded the same way.
Why is the real area smaller than in the listing?
Because listings usually quote the gross figure, with balconies, walls and a share of the common areas. Usable space is normally 15 to 25% smaller.
Can a foreigner buy land?
Yes, but no more than 30 hectares in one name, not in military zones, and with an obligation to submit a construction project within two years. Land does not qualify for a residence permit.
Which costs more to keep, an apartment in a complex or in an ordinary building?
A complex with pools and security has a higher aidat, because it covers the upkeep of the whole site. In a building without shared facilities residents pay only for the elevator, the cleaning and the entrance security.