House sizes continue to shrink nationwide

Gülistan Alagöz – ISTANBUL

As the shift toward solo living grows and the need for affordable housing intensifies amid rising costs, experts forecast that the trend of downsizing homes will persist in the years ahead.

The average house size in Türkiye dropped from over 130 square meters in the early 2000s to 104 square meters this year.

This downfall is also intimately related to the process of urban transformation and the fall in the number of household members.

A map schemed by Istanbul Real Estate Valuation (İGD) revealed further details of this shift in house sizes throughout time.

According to the study, the typical size of a home ranges from 71 to 171 square meters across the nation.

Among the nation’s three megacities, the capital Ankara by far features the largest houses, with the average house size standing at around 130 square meters.

In the western city of İzmir, the house sizes remain around 84 square meters, while the average house size in the megacity of Istanbul lingers around 98 square meters.

According to the İGD’s report, the largest homes in the nation are located in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, at 171 square meters, followed by the central province of Kayseri at 139 square meters.

Meanwhile, the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa, with an average house size of around 71 square meters, boasts the smallest homes nationwide, followed by the central Anatolian province of Aksaray, where the average size is 74 square meters.

A closer look at the changes throughout the years reveals that while apartments have become smaller in years, detached homes have become larger in size.

The average size of a detached home grew from 165 square meters in 2010 and 186 square meters in 2020 to 224 square meters last year, standing at around 212 square meters this year.

On the other hand, the average flat size stands around 97 square meters this year, down from 121 square meters in 2010 and 111 square meters in 2020.