The rules below come from the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) as published on the official legislation portal, checked on 31 July 2026. The temporary 25% cap ended on 1 July 2024; since then, the ceiling is the 12-month average TÜFE change.
Check the ceiling for your renewal now
Since 2 July 2024 ordinary annual renewals are back under the general regime of Article 344 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, so the TÜFE ceiling applies. The temporary 25% cap covered only residential renewals from 11 June 2022 through 1 July 2023 and from 2 July 2023 through 1 July 2024; where TÜFE was lower, the lower figure applied.
Act 30 days before the new period starts
To have a court-set rent apply from the first day of the new lease period, the claim must be filed no later than 30 days before that period begins, or written notice of the increase must be served on the tenant no later than 30 days before it begins. If the lease already has a clause allowing an increase, the claim can be filed until the end of the new period and still take effect from its start.
If the lease already has a clause allowing an increase, the claim can be filed until the end of the new period. That is a different deadline from the 30-day rule that applies when no increase was agreed.
What the court decides when you and the landlord disagree
When the parties have not agreed on an increase, the court sets the new rent itself. The figure must stay within the same ceiling: the change in the 12-month average TÜFE over the previous lease year.
Within that ceiling the court weighs the condition of the property and the principle of fairness. Market rents are not among the factors at an ordinary renewal, unlike at the five-year reset.
The five-year reset that can move rent beyond TÜFE
After five years of tenancy, and again at the end of each following five-year period, the court may determine a new rent on a different basis. The law names four factors: the 12-month average TÜFE, the condition of the property, comparable market rents and fairness.
The court is asked to weigh all four factors; the law does not state that the result must stay within the ordinary TÜFE ceiling. This is the point where comparable rents and fairness can pull the figure away from a simple TÜFE calculation.
Foreign-currency leases: why five years usually freeze the rate
A lease priced in a foreign currency is treated differently from a lira lease. The law provides that rent set in foreign currency generally cannot be changed before five years have passed. The freeze means the agreed amount stays, regardless of how the exchange rate or the local market has moved in the meantime.
The same provision reserves exceptions under the law on the protection of the value of the Turkish currency and the excessive hardship rule. The Code does not set out how those exceptions would change a specific lease; it only keeps the door open. Unless one of those exceptions applies, the rent is not raised through the ordinary renewal mechanism for five years.
Why published average rents may not match your flat
According to a Turkish personal-finance commentary checked in September 2026, furnishing, living in a residential complex and the age of the building all change what a flat rents for on the market. A furnished flat in a newer complex can command a different price from an unfurnished one in an older block, even in the same neighbourhood. That is why a published average rent for a district or city is a rough reference, not a figure for your own flat.
Before arguing over an average figure, compare listings for flats with the same furnishing, complex status and building age.
When a foreign-currency exception needs a lawyer's reading
If a landlord invokes an exception before five years have passed, do not accept the claim at face value. The law reserves the exceptions but does not define how they apply to a particular lease or a particular claim by a landlord.
That silence is the point where the reader stops calculating and asks a Turkish lawyer to read the lease and the invoked exception. The law reserves the exceptions; it does not give a formula a tenant can apply alone. When a landlord says an exception allows an increase before five years, the safe next step is to have the specific wording checked against the lease and the current rules.