Short-term rental platforms have turned parts of Türkiye's coastline and its two largest cities into active markets for what American investors often call rental arbitrage: acquiring or leasing a unit specifically to operate it as a furnished vacation rental rather than a long-term lease. The economics can be attractive, but the regulatory environment has shifted meaningfully since 2024, and US buyers evaluating this strategy need a clear picture of what is actually permitted before underwriting a deal.
The 2024 short-term rental law changed the baseline
Türkiye's short-term rental legislation, which took effect in January 2024, requires any residential unit rented for stays under 100 days to hold a permit issued through the local governor's office. Buildings governed by a homeowners' association (kat malikleri) must also obtain unanimous written consent from all other unit owners before a permit will be granted. This single requirement has reshaped the arbitrage landscape: standalone apartments in mixed-use buildings with unrelated owners are now far harder to convert to short-term use, while purpose-built resort developments, licensed apart-hotels, and buildings where a developer retains majority ownership are comparatively straightforward.
Practical implication : before modeling any short-term rental income, confirm whether the specific building already holds unanimous consent on file, or whether the developer sells units within a project structured from the outset as licensed short-term inventory. Retrofitting consent into an existing building with dozens of unrelated owners is often impractical.
Where arbitrage still works
Licensed tourism-zone developments, particularly in Antalya, Bodrum, and parts of the Aegean coast, are increasingly marketed with short-term rental permits already secured at the project level. Istanbul's arbitrage opportunity has narrowed to specific building types: boutique buildings under single ownership or management, and units within developments that carry hotel or tourism-facility licensing rather than standard residential title. Buyers pursuing arbitrage in Türkiye should treat permit status as a title-level due diligence item, equivalent in importance to confirming clean deed history.
Underwriting the numbers realistically
Gross yields quoted by local agents for coastal short-term rentals frequently sit in the high single digits to low double digits on paper, but US investors should stress-test three line items before relying on those figures. First, occupancy is sharply seasonal outside Istanbul, with many coastal markets seeing six to seven months of strong demand and a soft shoulder season around it. Second, professional management typically costs 20 to 30 percent of gross rental revenue when cleaning, guest communication, and platform listing management are included, a cost structure often already netted out by the more credible local operators but not always disclosed by sellers. Third, currency exposure matters: rental income is generated and taxed in Turkish lira, while acquisition cost and any repatriated returns are effectively benchmarked against the dollar, so lira volatility should be modeled as a return variable rather than ignored.
Tax and repatriation basics
Short-term rental income earned by a non-resident owner is subject to Turkish income tax, with a progressive schedule and standard deduction options for expenses. A tax return filed through a local accountant is standard practice, and profits can be repatriated abroad, though investors should plan for the administrative lag involved in annual filings and bank compliance checks on outbound transfers. This is a bookkeeping and timing consideration, not an obstacle, but it should be built into the operating budget from year one rather than treated as an afterthought.
Due diligence sequence for US buyers
A disciplined arbitrage evaluation follows a specific order: confirm the unit's title status and zoning classification, verify whether a short-term rental permit is already active or unanimous consent is documented, obtain trailing twelve-month occupancy and revenue data if the unit has an operating history, and independently price local property management rather than accepting a seller's projected net figure. Skipping the permit verification step is the single most common mistake among first-time foreign buyers pursuing this strategy, since a unit that looks identical to a licensed neighbor on paper may be legally barred from short-term operation.
Vacation-home rental arbitrage in Türkiye remains a viable strategy for investors willing to concentrate on licensed, purpose-built inventory and to underwrite conservatively around seasonality and management costs. It is considerably less viable as a strategy of buying an ordinary residential unit and hoping to convert it later, given how the 2024 permit framework now functions in practice.