Tools · Budget calculator

Can you afford it?

Tell us what lands in your account each month. We will set it against the four costs our city guides can actually source, rent, a desk, weekday lunches and getting around, and show you what is left for everything else.

Istanbul, a month

£434 to £964 for the basics.

Add your take-home pay above to see what is left.

Not every cost has a checked figure for Istanbul, so the real total is higher than this. The missing ones are marked below.

RentOne-bed in Besiktas, asking, from listings reported in the press (WEAK). The Central Bank index for a 100 m2 flat of any type is TRY 40,453. TRY 25,000 to 60,000
£379 to £909
A deskNo checked monthly coworking price. Regus charges TRY 1,249 for a hot desk for a day, or from TRY 209 a person a day on a 24-month contract
Not included
Weekday lunchesNo checked price for a cheap weekday lunch (esnaf lokantasi)
Not included
Getting aroundFull-fare monthly Istanbulkart pass, from 20 July 2026. TRY 3,628
£55

Turkey's Digital Nomad Visa (Digital Nomad Identification Certificate) asks for about £2,250 a month in income. Check your own case

The Istanbul guideCompare every city

What is counted. Four costs, and only four, because they are the ones every guide can source: rent, a desk, a lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around. Food shopping, bills, a phone, insurance, tax and evenings out are not in it, which is why the answer is what is left for everything else, not what is left to save.

Where the figures come from. Each city's guide, checked against official statistics, the operators' own price pages and dated listings. Each line says what it is. Where a guide only publishes rent per square metre, the line says what size flat it assumes. Last copied from the guides on 3 October 2026.

The exchange rates. The same daily feed as the visa checker, from ExchangeRate-API, last updated 20 October 2026. Pesos are converted at the official rate.