“Rent is money down the drain, an instalment goes into your own home.” You hear it often, and it’s half true. Much of a mortgage instalment also goes to interest, especially in the early years. And the renter isn’t empty-handed: the money they didn’t put into a down payment can be invested elsewhere.
The fair comparison puts two people who start with the same money side by side.
The rule of the comparison
Picture two people with the same savings:
- The buyer spends their savings on the down payment and purchase costs, borrows the rest and pays an instalment every month.
- The renter pays rent on the same home and keeps their savings invested.
Each month, whoever pays less invests the difference. If the instalment is higher than the rent, the renter saves the gap; if the rent is higher, the buyer does.
After a set period you compare their wealth:
- The buyer: the home’s value that day − the loan still owed + what they saved.
- The renter: the value of their investments.
Today’s picture: what the numbers say
The figures that drive the comparison, as of October 2026 in Türkiye:
- House prices: According to the CBRT House Price Index, they rose 22.3% in nominal terms in the year to September 2026. Adjusted for inflation, house prices fell 5.7%.
- Rents: The CBRT New Tenant Rent Index rose 26.6% in the year to September 2026. For sitting tenants, the legal cap under Article 344 of the Turkish Code of Obligations is the change in the 12-month average CPI: 31.49% for contracts renewed in October 2026.
- Mortgage rate: In CBRT weekly data, the yearly average in the week of 16 October 2026 was 41.50%, about 2.94% a month.
- Deposit rate: The same week, TL deposits averaged 42.88% a year; roughly 35% after withholding tax.
An example
A ₺4,000,000 home that rents for ₺20,000 a month. With 30% down and 5% costs, the buyer spends ₺1,400,000 and repays a ₺2,800,000 loan over 120 months: an instalment of about ₺84,900. The renter keeps the ₺1,400,000 invested and adds the gap between instalment and rent each month. Rent rises 31% a year.
Two assumptions decide the outcome: how fast house prices rise and what the renter’s investments earn. After 10 years:
| House price growth | Investment return | Buyer | Renter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22% | 35% | ~₺34.6 million | ~₺61.5 million |
| 30% | 35% | ~₺60.5 million | ~₺61.5 million |
| 35% | 30% | ~₺85.5 million | ~₺43.7 million |
Same home, same rent, three different outcomes. In the first row the renter is far ahead, in the second it’s a tie, in the third the buyer is far ahead. The answer to this table isn’t “rent” or “buy”: the answer is in your assumptions.
The figures are nominal; ₺60 million in 10 years is worth much less in today’s money. But the same inflation applies to both sides, so the comparison holds.
Three questions that decide it
- Will house prices or your investments grow faster? When mortgage and deposit rates are high and house prices lag inflation, renting and investing your savings can come out ahead. If house prices climb fast, the opposite happens.
- What is the rent-to-price ratio? If a year’s rent is a small share of the price (6% in the example), renting is relatively cheap. The higher the rent, the more attractive buying becomes.
- Will the renter really invest the difference? The calculation assumes the renter puts the gap aside every month with discipline. If it gets spent, the renter’s advantage disappears. An instalment, by contrast, is a kind of forced saving.
Some things stay out of the table. The owner pays property tax, building fees, maintenance and insurance; the renter faces moving costs and uncertain rent. The security of your own home, the freedom to move, or how many years you’ll stay in a city matter at least as much as the numbers.
How Kartopu calculates it
Try your own numbers in the rent vs buy calculator. Enter the price, rent, mortgage rate and term to see both sides’ wealth year by year.
In the Kartopu app you can ask the same question with your own records:
- Add your current rent as an expense and your savings as assets.
- Set up a home goal and try different price growth, return and pay rise assumptions in plans.
- Put the optimistic, base and pessimistic scenarios side by side. Decide on a range, not a single guess.
Sources
- CBRT, House Price Index and New Tenant Rent Index, September 2026.
- CBRT, EVDS, weekly deposit and loan rates, 16 October 2026.
- Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, Article 344.
- TurkStat (TÜİK), Consumer Price Index, September 2026.
This article is general information, not investment or loan advice.