Housing costs continue to command an increasingly large share of Turkish household budgets, as data on Tuesday showed they accounted for almost a third of their spending in 2025.
Housing and rent category's share in total household consumption expenditures rose to 29.3% from 26% in 2024, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
Transportation ranked second with a 20.5% share, down from 21.6% in the previous year.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages wrapped up the top three categories with a share of 17.3%, compared to 18.1% in 2024, the data showed.
At the other end of the scale, insurance and financial services represented just 0.8% of household spending, up from 0.7%, while education and health accounted for 1.8% and 2.2%, respectively. That compared to 1.6% and 2.3%, respectively, in the previous year.
Property sector has long been the main cause of distress among households as prices leaped since after the COVID-19 pandemic. The stickiness remained despite a downward trend in inflation since late 2023.
The Iran war has dented progress in disinflation this year. Consumer prices rose almost 4.2% month-over-month and nearly 32.4% on an annual basis in April, mainly driven by conflict-linked pricing pressures.
According to TurkStat, housing costs rose nearly 8% on monthly basis and were 46.6% higher compared to a year ago. The calculation based on the 12-month average of the consumer price index showed the rent increase rate for May stood at 32.43%.
Tuesday's data also showed transportation spending among high-income households was more than three times higher, as a share of total expenditure, than among low-income households.
Households in the highest income quantile allocated 25.7% of their spending to housing and rent and 25% to transportation-related expenses, including vehicle purchases, fuel, passenger transport, maintenance and repairs.
Their spending on food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 12.4% of total expenditures.
In contrast, households in the lowest income quantile spent 38.7% of their budgets on housing and rent and 29.2% on food and non-alcoholic beverages, while transportation represented only 8.6% of expenditures.
Spending patterns also varied according to households' primary source of income.
Households whose main income came from wages and salaries allocated 26.4% of spending to housing and rent, 21.9% to transportation and 16% to food and non-alcoholic beverages.
For households primarily reliant on business or entrepreneurial income, housing and rent accounted for 25.5% of expenditures, while transportation represented 25.9% and food 17%.
Household size also played a significant role in spending priorities.
Single-person households devoted 41% of their budgets to housing and rent, by far their largest expense category, while spending 14.3% on food and 14.4% on transportation.
For households with six or more members, food and non-alcoholic beverages represented the largest spending category at 23.7%, followed by housing and rent at 22.4% and transportation at 18.1%.
