Topic

Living and working here

What it is actually like to run a company and a life from Türkiye: what things cost, where the tech industry sits, teknoparks, offices and the practical side of moving.

A woman and a man with wheeled cabin cases standing in a bright office reception, one holding a folder, rooftops through tall windows Living and working here
· 4 min read

Work permits for the team you bring with you

The founder's residence permit is the easy part. Employing foreign staff runs into a five to one local hiring ratio, a capital test and salary floors set as multiples of the minimum wage.

Living and working here
A developer at a dual-monitor desk seen from behind, colleagues working further down a bright office, an olive tree by the windows Living and working here
· 4 min read

What a developer costs you as an employer in Türkiye

Gross salary is not the number. Employer contributions add 23.75%, they stop at a ceiling of 297,270 TL a month, and severance accrues from the first year of service.

Living and working here
A traveller with a backpack walking down a station platform beside a white high speed train Living and working here
· 5 min read

Istanbul or Ankara: where to base the company

Ankara is cheaper, calmer and holds the country's oldest technopark and its defence industry. Istanbul has the games studios, the investors and the flights. What each one is actually better at.

Living and working here
A sunlit Istanbul street with people walking past a greengrocer's crates of vegetables under a yellow awning Living and working here
· 5 min read

What a salary actually buys in Istanbul

Rent, transport, utilities and a night out, measured against Berlin and London from the same source. What it means for what you pay a team, and for what you personally spend.

Living and working here
People crossing the glass walkways and staircase of a bright modern atrium Living and working here
· 5 min read

Which Istanbul teknopark should you join?

Istanbul has more than a dozen technology development zones and they are not interchangeable. What sits where, who they suit, and why the incubator attached to one of them matters more than the rent.

Living and working here
A curved white and glass office building seen from below against a clear sky Living and working here
· 6 min read

Teknopark tax breaks and where the Turkish tech industry sits

Your office is one of the few costs the export programme does not reimburse. Teknoparks are the reason that matters less than it sounds, and they change the maths on hiring engineers.

Living and working here
A row of grey waiting chairs against floor to ceiling windows, a folder and pen left on one seat Living and working here
· 5 min read

Tax number, bank account, residence permit: the order to do them in

The admin that stands between deciding to set up in Türkiye and actually operating. What each step needs, which ones block the others, and where the delays really come from.

Living and working here