Turkey Is Expensive Now (Here’s Why)

    Turkey is expensive now. And to figure out how it got this way, we’re looking at Istanbul through three different lenses: The tourist, the local, and the foreign investor.

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    20 Comments

    1. Don't you love it when you have ignorant Americans coming up with this kind of video, the whole of Europe has known for the past 5 years at the very least?! Nobody in Europe actively choses Turkey as a summer destination because it's expensive as hell. The end, voila I saved you guys 09:24 of this American trying to "breakdown" the reasons…. (Mainly Turks go there because they have property and established ties in Turkey, even Turks living in Western Europe visiting their family complain about the ridiculous nonsense prices!)

    2. Wow. Are you seeing hospitality venues having two separate menus or pricing systems, one more expensive in English for foreigners and a cheaper one in Turkish for locals?
      The examples you showed that didn't seem to be the case

    3. Prices aren't so high in the rest of Turkey, especially the smaller towns down in east! Istanbul earns mostly in dollars and that's what I think made prices so high so fast. Last year I was looking for an apartment in Trabzon and a 3 bed apartment cost 6 million TRY while in Istanbul it coat around 100 million TRY. (the Trabzon apartment was actually around 3 million TRY in 2023 but then the Istanbulites and other people earning $$$ off the tourism industry started investing in Trabzon and other cheap areas and property prices shot up!. Minimum wage was around 6000 TRY in 2022(if I remember right) and then it started rising up almost each years, The retailers meanwhile kept up their prices with the raises in the minimum wages. Wages go up and so people have more buying power. That is also to be taken into consideration.

    4. Turkish people are lovely and beautiful country but Turkish economy is bankrupt. Everything crazy expensive , especially Food is terrible quality and super expensive.

    5. I visited Istanbul again in May 2026 after 15years. Oh boy, everything was so expensive. A cup of Cappuccino and a slice of cheese cake cost me Euro16.

    6. I was in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2026. I came from Washington state in the U.S. To me, the prices were high. Public transportation was cheap, but food prices felt the same as in the U.S., and most products sold in the markets were the same as well. To me, Mexico is cheaper. Would I go back to Turkey again? No. It is an awesome country to visit, but the prices are higher.