| Hello, I'm Seda. Welcome to TurkishClass101.com. Today we'll talk about the costs of living in Turkey. Turkey is a very big country, so the costs are generally different in big cities and small villages. The rents and the earnings and a lot of things differ. So, I will use Istanbul as an example. Istanbul is not the capital but the biggest city in Turkey, and around 20 million live in Istanbul. So, it will give you a rough idea. Istanbul is one of the, I think, the most expensive city as well. But if you are just visiting, this is important knowledge. But if you are planning to live in Turkey, generally in Istanbul, the incomes are also higher. So, the costs are higher, but the incomes are higher. And when you go to other cities, the income is a little bit less than you can earn in Istanbul, but your costs are also a little bit less. |
| So, let's start with our costs. It's good information. So, let's start with rent. So, in Istanbul, there are two sides: one Anatolian side and one European side. And we have three bridges and one under tunnel that you can go by car and one subway goes from underneath the Bosporus. So, you can have a lot of ways to crisscross the sides. And it's literally one side is in Asia, the other side is in Europe. So, it's, I think, one of the, I don't know how many other countries have that, like we have two continents in one city, and we have, they just connect them. So, that's a little amazing, I think. |
| Anyway, in general, the European side, in rent base, is higher comparing to the Asian side. But it depends, actually, because the central places are much more expensive than the faraway places. And it depends on, you know, how big you want your apartment. The buildings differ from the new buildings are more expensive than the old buildings. And there are a lot of constructions because of the earthquake. The buildings are getting renewed constantly. So, it depends on a lot of factors. That's why it's a little hard to give an exact number. But it starts from 1,000 Turkish liras to, it can go to 10,000, which is very expensive. But the range is that big. So, you can pick a place according to your income. |
| And keep in mind that one Turkish lira is around 5.7 American dollars. So, you can make your math. And generally, the minimum wage, the minimum income limit is around 2,000, I think 2,300 Turkish liras, which is very low, lower than the survival needs. So, people are working on it, I think, or should work on it. But that's the minimum wage. So, and the rents are starting from 1,000. So, you can imagine that it will be really hard to see the end of the month for a lot of people. |
| So, if you are coming here and you want to rent a house, you should know that in Istanbul, in general, in Turkey, you rent apartments. Houses are very expensive. Maybe in faraway villages, you can rent cheap houses, but in cities, you can't just rent a house. It would be very, very expensive, and you couldn't find a lot of houses. Anyway, we generally live in apartments, apartment buildings. And the houses, you can rent them from there's a couple of websites you can check out. Hurriyet Emlak, Milliyet Emlak, Sahibinden.com you can check out these websites, or you can use, I think, Airbnb for renting houses as well. But, you know, I don't know if you're gonna stay for a couple of days, you could go to a hotel, or you can use Airbnb. But if you're gonna stay here permanently, using local rental agencies or these rental websites in Turkish would help you, I think, better income-wise. So, check them out. And this is for rent. |
| Okay, let's see our utilities. Utilities, okay. In general, you have to, in Turkey, you have to pay for water. Not this is not for drinking water. You have to pay for drinking water as well, but for this is for you to, for the water coming from the pipes. We don't drink water from pipes. They're not clean. We use, we in cities at least, we get bottled waters. And you have to pay for water, pay for electricity, pay for heating. It's generally cold. We have around four seasons, so winter time, it's getting really cold. And we have a fee for apartments for apartments manage cleaning and electricity stuff like that. And we have, let me check, yeah, that's it. |
| So, for water, it's one of the cheapest ones. It also depends on how much you use it. But it goes from 50 Turkish liras to 200 Turkish liras for water per month. Because it depends, you know, if you are one person in a house, it's, of course, you would use less water. And if you are not, if you are working all day, you are not at home, you would use less water. But if you are like a four-member family, then you would use more. So, from 50 Turkish liras to 200 Turkish liras. |
| For apartment fees, if you're living in a singles, you know, small apartment, the fees can go as low as 20, 30 Turkish liras. But if you are living in luxury compounds, it can go to like 500 Turkish liras. So, that's for apartments. You pay for apartments. They take care of your apartment cleaning. They take care of your trash. And yeah, some people come, you know, at some time and collect your trash. And they take care of your, sometimes security. If you pay more, generally, security includes, and things like that, you have to pay for an apartment. |
| And heating, heating is killing us. It's so expensive. And we generally, in Istanbul and not all the cities in Turkey, but in big cities, we use natural gas. And it's really expensive. It's, again, you know, depending on how much you use it. If you are not at home all day, and you are just running the heat only for a couple of hours, of course, it's not going to get, you know, get too high. But if you are using it all day long, then it would get from, I think, let me check my numbers, yeah, minimum, it's around 100 Turkish liras. It goes up to 800 Turkish liras. So, it depends on how much you use it. |
| And some in some apartments, you can control your heating, like you turn it on and turn it off. But in some apartments, the apartment control it. So, you don't have any saying on it. So, it's like a shared heating. So, they calculate the amount for the whole apartments, and then they just divide it to the number. So, it depends on the building as well, and how good is the apartment's physical properties. It depends on a lot of factors, but that's the range. |
| And for water heating, some apartments use natural gas for water heating, some apartments use electricity. So, it depends on the apartment as well. And for electricity, it wasn't that expensive, but this year it's much more expensive. So, it again depends on how much you use it, but it ranges from, I think, it's minimum 100 Turkish liras you get for electricity. So, I don't know how much that makes, you can calculate the amount. But that's for the utilities and rent. |
| So, let's check out some vocabulary. We have rent, right? Rent is in Turkish 'kira'. And we have “bill” which is “fatura” . We have electricity bills, “elektrik faturası” . For example, we have a water bill, it's 'su faturası'. And we have a natural gas bill, “doğalgaz faturası” and we have the apartment pay, as I told you before, it is 'aidat'. So, you have all your vocabulary information for rents and utilities. |
| Okay, so let's see what you need in Istanbul. You need to know how much you will spend on transportation, right? If you are living, most of the cities have this card. I don't have it with me right now, I will show you. But we have cards called, if you are living in Istanbul, it's called Istanbul card. If you are living in Izmir, it's called accordingly. And all the cities have their own cards. And you need to use this for public transportation. You can just pay independently, but it would be much more expensive. |
| And let's check the fees. Okay, let's go and come back. As you can see, there are three different types of cards. One is full fare, the other is a student card, and the other is a teacher or social card. The fees are different, and there's also a monthly card which is called a blue card. And the blue card prices are also different according to the card type. And you will see here this transfer fares for buses and Metrobuses. Metrobus is a specific type of bus separate from the traffic plane, which is good because you don't get stuck in the traffic. And you see per transfer how much it cost. And as you can see, you can also get a free ticket, free electronic ticket. But it's more expensive. So, if you are planning to travel a lot in Istanbul or in other cities, it's better to get a card to use it. |
| So, you saw the fees, and it's much more, you know, it's smarter to use an Istanbul card. You can just get smart Istanbul cards from bus stops, or you can just order online. That's okay, and use it. And there are also sometimes free passes when you use it. For example, in a time limit, you use the subway, you use the bus, and the ferry, then some of them go on a free pass. You don't pay anything. But if you don't have the card, you have to pay for them separately. And for students, as I told you before, for students, it's so inexpensive. So, it's better to get an Istanbul card or another city card to use public transportation. |
| And for Istanbul, public transportation, I think, it's the best way because it's a very crowded city. And there's a lot of traffic jams, and you know, if you use your own car, rent your own car, it's not a very good idea to rent a car in Istanbul. Parking is a problem.You have to pay for parking, and traffic is a problem, and you would go crazy. So, use public transportation. If there's a traffic jam, then you could use the train, the subway, or you could take a ferry, or you could just walk. It's much better to be stuck in traffic. |
| So, if you have to go somewhere, you don't want to use the public transportation, you would use a taxi, of course. And it, I think it's, it's global. Taxis are expensive everywhere, right? So, in Istanbul, it's also expensive to travel with a taxi. And most of the time, you could, you know, get stuck in traffic with a taxi. But you need to know the numbers, so you could, you know, some taxi drivers, they took the wrong way, a long way to, because they assume that you are a foreigner. Not all of them, but some of them, they assume that you are a foreigner, and you don't know the way, you don't know the road. So, if your way is, for example, from here to here, instead of going like that, they go like that. So, it's a long way, and it's more money. Shame, but some people do that. |
| So, for that, there's an app in Turkey. It's called, I think, BiTaksi. Yeah, BiTaksi. You could set your location, and from that location, you can see the taxis nearby. It's like a kind of Uber, but not the, it's for taxis. You see the closest taxis, you choose one, and you also choose the destination. So, you can see the destination on the map. Okay, so you see the destination on the map. And you can also pay with a credit card, I think. So, it's good that if you don't have cash with you, you can pay with the credit card. So, it's maybe more secure for foreigners to use that. |
| But even if you use regular taxis, most of them are okay. But you would maybe ask a local how to get there, how far is it before you jump on the taxi. So, you have an idea, or you just use your map on your smartphone to see how much, how does, how much does it take to go from some location to other locations. So, you have a general idea. And I think the taxi, let me check my notes, yes, it starts with around five, around five, six Turkish liras. It starts with that number, then it adds up in every kilometer. It adds up to around three, I think, yeah, it's three Turkish liras per kilometer. So, you can just look at the map, you know, do your math. |
| So, we covered your transportation, right? Let's cover some transportation vocabulary. For taxis, we say 'taksi'. Easy, right? Taksi, we just say taksi. For bus, we say 'otobüs'. I'm sorry, for train, we say 'tren'. And for, we have some jitneys, like these small, bigger taxi thing that you share your taxi, and we call them 'dolmuş'. And we have these minibuses. They go like crazy, but they take you everywhere, and they're very cheap, in general. We call them 'minibüs'. And we have some ferries, because Istanbul is surrounded by sea. And for ferries, we say 'vapur'. And let's check, yeah, ah, for the subway, we say 'metro'. Metro. And this is just for Istanbul. Normally the train is “tren” as I told you before. But for Istanbul because we have that underground kind of thing between the two sides of Istanbul from European side to Asian side that was called Marmaray because the sea surrounding İstanbul is Marmara Sea, Marmara Denizi. That’s why it was called Marmaray. And now they are connected to the train lines in both areas in the Anatolian part and the European part through Marmaray. So the whole line, the whole train line is called Marmaray right now. Ok, this is just for İstanbul. But keep that in mind. |
| So, you know all about transportation. Let’s go and talk about eating. If you are living here, you would probably cook at home so you would go to the grocery market or farmers market. There are a lot of farmers markets in Turkey, in İstanbul as well. In every part of the city there are different farmers markets on different days. So generally farmers markets are cheaper than grocery stores. And you know the food expenses are changing all the time. But if you are going to cook, it is going to be around, if you are 1 person it is probably the groceries is going to be around 300 TL for a person. But again it depends on how many you buy, what kind of food you buy, how much you cook so it depends on a lot of factors but let's say around 300 TL but if you go out. You should go out. Turkish food is really really good. I would say it is number one. I really love it and you can find everything.I don’t think anybody wouldn’t find at least, I don’t know. I am speechless. Turkish food is good. If you go out, you can find even the cheapest. We have simit, it is like some kind of bagel but very delicious, it goes like 2 -3 Liras. You can get simit and ayran, it is a yogurt drink. You would pay 5-6 liras for that and you would be done with the breakfast or I don’t know lunch for a couple of Turkish liras but besides street food, you should try street food, but you should talk to locals and ask them where to eat street food, it would be safer. Mid range restaurants would go around 30-40 Turkish liras per person. You could have a full meal with soup, meat, some vegetables and after that high class restaurants you could pay like 200-300-400- 500 hundred Turkish liras for specific foods. IT goes forever I think according to your taste and according to your budget. The food part is the easiest part for arranging your budget. For every budget there is something good to eat so it would be easier.So we covered the food, utilities, housing and transportation. Now let's talk about some fun activities. For example if you want to go to the movies, the regular movies start like , 3d movies, blockbusters are the most expensive ones, they start around 30-35 Turkish liras for per person it can go a little bit more expensive according to the movie theaters. For independent movies, independent movie theaters you can find tickets for 10-15 liras. Some days are cheaper for the students if you are planning to study here, get a student car because transportation, museums, and some movie theaters have discounts for students. That’s for the movies. For theaters, it starts from 20-30 Liras if you change it to Euro, to USD all these prices will be very cheap but if you are earning Turkish liras, you can make a budget thinking of these numbers. |
| Concerts are a little bit more expensive. It starts from 100 Turkish liras. It changes according to the concert, the place Maybe some concerts will be even cheaper but generally it would start from 100 liras. |
| And museums, some museums are free. You can go and walk and check it out. Some museums you need to pay a fee and the fee can go up to 80 TL. That’s one of the most expensive fees for museums. Generally the museums are not that expensive in Turkey. |
| I think we are done with the cost. |
| Let’s talk about some fun leisure activity vocabulary before we go and you’ll be covered. |
| For museums, we would say “müze” |
| For concerts, we would say “konser”, |
| For theaters, we would say “ tiyatro” |
| For movie theaters, we would say “sinema” |
| And let’s see |
| For books, we would say “kitap” |
| And I didn’t talk about book fees but it can start from 10 liras to 50-60 liras if the book is really high quality with pictures, good quality paper, hard cover it can go like that. I think, the ticker, we forgot the ticket, the ticket is “bilet” |
| Yeah, now you know all about the cost of living in Turkey, especially in İstanbul. |
| Have you ever visited İstanbul, or Turkey. How much did you send? Did you find it expensive or cheap? Please leave some comments and let me know! |
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