RELOVA JOURNAL

Blog/Published April 20, 2026 · Updated September 19, 2026

How to Move to Antalya, Turkey in 2026: Mediterranean Coast Expat Guide

By Anna Moore

Antalya 2026: short-term residence permit income tests, the $400,000 citizenship-by-investment property route, and rent from Kepez to Lara.

Turkey's short-term residence permit — the document most Antalya arrivals actually hold, rather than any Antalya-specific visa — runs on an income test pegged to the national net minimum wage, which puts it on a moving target every time the wage is revised. Based on the 2026 net minimum wage of 28,075 TL, a single applicant needs to show income of roughly 1.5 times that figure, around 42,112 TL a month, with an additional 1.0 times the net minimum wage per dependent — a family of two needs about 70,188 TL, a family of three about 98,263 TL. Those numbers move whenever Turkey adjusts the minimum wage, which it has historically done annually and sometimes mid-year given lira volatility; treat the exact TL figure as a snapshot, not a constant, and re-check it the month you actually file.

The $400,000 route past the income test entirely

For anyone with capital rather than a qualifying income stream, Turkey's citizenship-by-investment program sidesteps the residence-permit income math altogether: purchasing Turkish real estate worth USD 400,000 or more (raised from the original $250,000 threshold in mid-2022) and holding it for a minimum period qualifies the buyer and immediate family for citizenship, not just residency — a meaningfully faster and more permanent outcome than the renewable short-term permit track. Antalya, as one of the country's most active foreign-buyer property markets alongside Istanbul, sees plenty of these purchases; the median price runs around ₺49,000 per square meter (roughly $1,065), with premium coastal districts like Konyaaltı and Kaş running to ₺78,000–103,000+ per square meter, while inland, less touristed areas like Akseki and Elmalı dip as low as ₺20,000–42,000.

Rent by district, not by national average

Lara, Antalya's upscale beachfront stretch closest to five-star resort territory, runs $350–600 a month for a one-bedroom. Konyaaltı, the other major beach district and generally considered more residential and less resort-dense than Lara, comes in at $300–500. Kepez, inland and more working-class in character, drops to $200–380 — genuinely the budget option, at the cost of beach proximity and the walkability that draws most retirees and remote workers to Antalya in the first place. All three figures sit well under equivalent Istanbul rents, which is the honest core of Antalya's pitch: coastal, Mediterranean, and meaningfully cheaper than Turkey's largest city without sacrificing much in the way of expat infrastructure, English-speaking clinics, or direct flight connections to Northern Europe.

The season most guides don't mention

Antalya's climate sells itself for eight or nine months a year, but July and August bring genuinely oppressive heat and the peak of a tourism surge that temporarily inflates short-term rental prices and restaurant wait times across the coastal districts — anyone planning a permanent move should budget for that seasonal crush rather than assume the shoulder-season pricing they scouted in April holds year-round.

Healthcare and the private-insurance default

Most residence-permit applicants, regardless of route, end up on private health insurance rather than Turkey's public SGK system, since SGK enrollment for foreigners carries its own eligibility conditions and waiting periods that don't suit someone arriving mid-year. Private policies suited to the residence-permit application typically run a few hundred dollars a year for a healthy adult, and Antalya's private hospital network — well used to serving both retirees and the city's large medical-tourism industry — is generally considered strong by regional standards, with English-speaking staff common at the larger private facilities.

Antalya in 2026 is a 28,075-TL-minimum-wage-indexed permit, $400,000-for-citizenship, $200–600-for-a-one-bed market. Whichever route you take, re-verify the TL income threshold against the current minimum wage before you file — it's the one number in this guide guaranteed to have moved by the time you read it.

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