Turkey Commercial Real Estate Market: Shops, Offices and Retail in 2026

Last updated: November 2026. This page covers market data only: sales, rents, turnover and the tax framework for shops, offices and other workplaces in Turkey. If you want to buy, our listings article on commercial property for sale in Istanbul shows current units, and the process is set out in buying commercial property in Turkey as a foreigner.

The Commercial Market in Numbers

Workplace Sales: What TurkStat Reports

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat, TUIK) reports workplace sales every month in the same bulletin as house sales. A workplace is a shop, office or similar unit registered for business use. In September 2026, 17,345 workplaces changed hands, 3.8% fewer than a year earlier. The nine-month total was 135,543, down 5.1%.

The two halves of the market moved in opposite directions. First-hand sales, meaning units sold for the first time by a developer, rose 13.2% in September to 5,789 and 4.2% over nine months to 40,632. Second-hand sales fell 10.5% in September to 11,556 and 8.6% over nine months to 94,911.

Credit plays a small part. Only 683 workplace sales in September and 6,035 in the nine months involved a mortgage. That is 61.8% more than a year earlier, but still under 5% of all sales, so commercial property in Turkey is in practice a cash market. For scale, 1,092,919 homes were sold in the same nine months, about eight for every workplace. Housing figures are in our Turkey real estate market 2026 report.

Offices: Record Rents in a Few Districts

The office market is concentrated in Istanbul. According to the half-year market outlook of Cushman & Wakefield | TR International, the prime rent in the Levent and Etiler corridor reached USD 52 per square metre a month in the second quarter of 2026. That is a record, 13% higher in dollars and 32.6% higher in lira (TRY 2,359) than a year before. The same report puts prime rents at USD 40 in Maslak and USD 35 in the Esentepe, Gayrettepe and Zincirlikuyu area, against USD 25 in Ankara and USD 22 in Izmir. New lettings in Istanbul totalled 86,202 square metres in the first half of the year, 57% more than in the first half of 2025.

These are prime figures for modern towers let floor by floor to companies. A private investor usually buys something different: a small office in a mixed-use project or a home-office unit, where rents are well below the prime level. On the Asian side, the Istanbul Financial Center has added a second office cluster; see our Atasehir and Istanbul Financial Center guide.

Retail: Shopping Centres and Street Shops

The 2025 index of the Shopping Centres and Investors Association (AYD) and Akademetre, presented in March 2026, counts 445 shopping centres in Turkey with roughly 14 million square metres of leasable area. Their turnover was about USD 59 billion in 2025. Turnover per square metre rose 30% to TRY 191,803, faster in Anatolian cities (35.3%) than in Istanbul (25%), while the visitor index fell 3%. With annual consumer inflation at 30.89% in December 2025 (TurkStat), a 30% nominal rise means sales were broadly flat in real terms.

Units inside large malls are rarely sold one by one. For a private buyer, mall investment usually means a shop in a smaller centre or a mixed-use project, such as this shopping mall investment in Merter, or shares in a listed trust (see our guide to REITs (GYO) in Turkey). Street shops are bought mostly by local investors, and no official rent series exists for them, so each shop has to be judged on its own lease.

The VAT and Withholding Framework

• VAT on a first sale: 20% when a developer or company sells a workplace, compared with 1% to 20% for homes. Foreign buyers who do not live in Turkey can use the exemption in VAT Law Article 13/i when the sale is a first sale, the price arrives in foreign currency and the unit is kept for three years (the period has been three years since 1 May 2022, Law No. 7394). Ask your accountant to confirm that the exemption applies to your purchase.
• Title deed fee: the same 4% as for housing, charged on the declared price.
• Annual property tax: in metropolitan municipalities workplaces pay 0.4% a year on the tax value, twice the rate for homes.
• Withholding on rent: a tenant that is a company or a self-employed professional keeps back one fifth (20%) of the gross rent as withholding tax and remits it. The landlord files a return each year and credits the amount already withheld.
• Income tax: the 2026 scale starts at 15% (up to TRY 190,000 of taxable income) and ends at 40% (above TRY 5.3 million). The TRY 58,000 exemption for 2026 covers residential rent only, not workplace rent.
• VAT on rent: a landlord who is a company or otherwise VAT-registered adds 20% VAT to the rent.

This is a summary, not tax advice; ask an accountant how the rules apply to you.

How Commercial Leases Work

Shops and offices fall under the workplace lease rules in Law No. 6098, the Code of Obligations. At each renewal the increase cannot be higher than the twelve-month average rise in consumer prices published by TurkStat, and once five years have passed a court can reset the rent at the request of landlord or tenant. The landlord cannot simply end the lease when the term expires: without one of the legal grounds, the tenant may stay, and only after ten extension years can the landlord terminate without giving a reason. Rent disputes must go to mediation before a court will hear them. Between parties resident in Turkey, rent is as a rule set in lira, so most leases are lira contracts with annual indexation.

Foreign Buyers in the Commercial Market

Article 35 of the Land Registry Law lets foreign individuals buy workplaces within the same limits as homes, and a company set up in Turkey with foreign capital buys as a Turkish company. TurkStat publishes the nationality of buyers for homes only (15,308 homes went to foreigners from January to September 2026, 1.4% of all house sales), so no comparable official figure exists for workplaces. The set-up steps for a company are on our company registration in Turkey page.

A workplace can be used for the citizenship route: an investor whose qualifying real estate is priced and valued at USD 400,000 or above, and blocked from sale for three years by a title annotation, is eligible to apply, subject to legal requirements and official approval. A residence permit, by contrast, can be based on a home only. Our guide to investment property in Turkey compares commercial units with other property types, and our property Turkey listings include shops and offices.

What the Data Means for Investors

• Plan for cash and for time. With under 5% of sales financed by a mortgage and resales falling, a commercial unit can take a long time to sell.
• Calculate yield from a real lease. No official commercial yield series exists. Take the signed rent, deduct withholding, property tax and empty months, and compare the result with housing in Turkey property investment returns by city and property prices in Turkey.
• Compare with other assets. Deposits, gold and funds compete for the same money; see best investment options in Turkey.

Frequently Asked Questions

How large is the commercial property market in Turkey?

TurkStat recorded 135,543 workplace sales from January to September 2026, about one for every eight homes sold.

Are office rents in Istanbul going up?

Prime rents are. Cushman & Wakefield | TR International reported USD 52 per square metre a month in Levent and Etiler for the second quarter of 2026, up 13% in a year.

Is VAT charged on commercial property in Turkey?

Yes, at 20% when a developer or company sells a workplace for the first time. A resale between private individuals is normally outside VAT, and a non-resident foreign buyer may qualify for the exemption on a first sale.

Does commercial property count for Turkish citizenship?

It can. Workplaces are accepted for the USD 400,000 real estate route under the same valuation, payment and three-year rules as homes, and every application is subject to official approval.

Sources: TurkStat, House and Workplace Sales Statistics, September 2026 (16 October 2026); Cushman & Wakefield | TR International, Real Estate Market Outlook, first half of 2026; AYD and Akademetre shopping centre index for 2025 (March 2026); Income Tax General Communique No. 332 (Official Gazette, 31 December 2025). This article gives general information and is no substitute for legal, tax or investment advice.