The size of a Turkish square meter

This time we will look into something that should seem quite simple - which is the size of a square meter.


Let us first take a look at what Wikipedia has to say related to the subject:


The square metre (British spelling) or square meter (American spelling) is an unit of area...

It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre.


For those who are particularly interested in the subject it is worth noticing that 1m2 equals 0.000001 km2 (square kilometers) or 10.000 cm2 (square centimeters).


A question to which Wikipedia does not answer is what the size of a Turkish square meter is.

Because one thing that experience has taught us, is that one (1) European m2 and one (1) Turkish square meter are not equal.


This is most obvious when we receive the floor plans for the units we promote. These are often quite exaggerated and often we see 2-bedroom apartments of 150m2.

But visiting the apartment in question often reveals another story.
Or to put it another way: The 150m2 apartment turns out to be just 100m2.


Main reason for this:

- Measuring square meters in Turkey are not subject to any standard decided by law. Each constructor and developer are therefor measuring based on their own system.
Handing out wrong information is of course not legal, but often firestairs, hall area, elevator area and inside service shafts are included in the total squaremeter figures.

- Also estate agents are not subject to a certain standard when informing clients about apartment size. Each estate agent are determining themselves how to measure and no public records are available/ hard to access.

This means that figures given for each apartment are approximate and often tends to be a bit positive, so to speak.


In the end....

- Never trust the figures given by estate agents, private sellers or constructors entirely. In case the property is already constructed this is of course less problematic since you as a buyer can view and visit the unit in question and see for your self how big - or how small - the apartment really is.

- In case the unit in question is an off-plan apartment and not yet build, you as a buyer should always ask for the floor plans and inside measurements - wall to wall - of the apartment.
In that way you can fairly easy calculate the correct figures your self.

Get the size of the apartment written into the buying agreement and make sure to specify that in case the apartment turns out to be smaller than agreed, you will be entitled to compensation.

- In general when looking for a new holiday home: Do not get blinded by huge figures and apartments that on the paper seems to be extremely large.

- At www.2base.com we always try to give exact and correct figures. When promoting off-plan projects we use the figures provided by the constructor. And as explained above, these should sometimes be considered more as guidelines than as a fact.

In general we try to use a gross-figure that consists if the amount of livable square meters plus balconies.

Furthermore we always try to have floor plans available, but often they do not exist.


In case there are questions related to any of the square meter figures on our web site, please do not hesitate to contact us.

This blog-post is written by 2Base Estate Agency & My2Base Holiday Homes
Visit us online:
Holiday Homes for sale: www.2base.com
Letting & Services: www.my2base.com
Online Shop: www.my2baseshop.com