Türkiye tops European countries in rent increase

ISTANBUL

Türkiye has recorded the highest annual increase in rent among European Union members and EU candidate countries, according to data from Eurostat.

Between May 2023 and May 2024, rents in Türkiye surged by 125.1 percent. Hungary came second with an annual increase of 12.8 percent in rent prices.

Türkiye saw this steep increase in rents despite the rent hike cap. The government in June 2022 introduced a measure which limited rent increases to 25 percent.

This cap, however, will expire as of July 2. Once the cap expires, the rent increase should be indexed to the 12-month average consumer price inflation. But experts are warning that more disputes should be expected to emerge between landlords and tenants after July over rent prices.

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek suggested in his earlier remarks that the cap on rent hikes will not be renewed beyond July.

“I do not see any reason why it [the cap on rent increase] should continue and I do not think it should continue,” Şimşek said.

However, a recent report by the Istanbul-based Bahçeşehir University’s Economic and Social Research Center (BETAM) showed that the annual rate of increase rental prices continued to decline in May.

In real terms, adjusted for inflation, average rent prices across Türkiye declined by 14 percent in May compared with the same month of 2023.

By the same metric, rental prices declined by 13.3 percent in Istanbul from a year ago, while the annual declines in Ankara and the western province of İzmir were 1.2 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, according to the BETAM study.