People come and go from every country. Turkey is no exception. The real reasons foreigners leave – and Alanya in particular – tend to fall into a small number of consistent categories.
51a. Why they leave
Rapidly rising cost of living: Turkeys food inflation has been running far above the global average for years. As of March 2026, annual food inflation in Turkey stood at around 33.4%, compared to approximately 2.6% in the eurozone. Since 2021, food prices in Turkey have risen by approximately 733%, while global food prices increased by just 1.2% over the same period. For foreigners on fixed incomes, this creates serious financial pressure over time.
Failure to adapt: Some foreigners find they cannot adapt to Turkeys cultural and bureaucratic environment. Learning the system, picking up the language, and integrating into daily life is not for everyone.
Expectations not matching reality: As covered in Article 47, a significant share of those who buy property based on a short holiday impression find that what they imagined and what they experience do not align. When the gap becomes too wide, they leave.
51b. What those who stayed think
Long-term foreign residents of Alanya generally do not spend much time analysing why someone else left. This is the nature of the city: neighbourly ties and friendships rarely run deep before people move on. Nobodys life is particularly anyone elses business. There is no culture of judging those who leave – no they were right to go or they just couldnt adapt. The city moves at its own pace and pays little attention to who stays or goes.
51c. Regret or relief?
Beyond the cost-of-living issue, most people who leave Alanya do not have a serious grievance with the place itself. The adaptation question is personal. But food inflation is a real and concrete problem – not an individual impression. According to the OECDs October 2025 Consumer Price Report, Turkey recorded the highest inflation rate among all OECD member countries, with food inflation at 33.3% against an OECD average of 4.1%. Between 2019 and 2025, food prices in Turkey rose approximately 790%, compared to an OECD average of 45.8%.
For foreigners earning in foreign currency, this inflation is partly absorbed by the exchange rate advantage – but when the rate of lira depreciation slows, that buffer weakens too.
51d. Those who come back
Rare, but it happens. Some foreigners who leave Turkey return after a period away – driven by nostalgia, by costs elsewhere proving higher than expected, or simply because no other place matched what they had here. This profile is a minority, but it does exist. And it says something about the lasting pull Turkey can have on those who have genuinely lived here.
| Reason for Leaving | Notes |
|---|---|
| Rising cost of living | Food inflation 12-13x eurozone average at peak |
| Failure to adapt | Cultural and bureaucratic adjustment |
| Unmet expectations | Holiday impression vs daily reality |
| Return after leaving | Rare but happens |
Sources: T.C. Goc Idaresi Genel Mudurlugu – https://www.goc.gov.tr | TUIK – https://www.tuik.gov.tr
EXPERT ADVICE: Those who leave Turkey are usually leaving their own expectations behind, not the country itself. Come with a realistic budget, know what you are getting into, and Turkey will rarely disappoint. But do not ignore the inflation data – The numbers are real and they matter.
P.S. The people who leave Turkey are rarely leaving because of one thing. It accumulates. The cost of living on the coast has changed dramatically grocery bills in Alanya now genuinely compete with Northern Europe. The era when 1,500 EUR a month meant living like royalty is over. Today that same pension gives you a normal, comfortable life nothing more. Add a bad experience with the wrong people, a landlord dispute, a bureaucratic frustration, and suddenly the dream feels different. None of these things are unique to Turkey. But people come here with higher expectations than they bring to other destinations and when reality doesnt match the brochure, the disappointment is sharper. The honest truth: Turkey is still excellent value if your income is in euros or dollars and above a reasonable threshold. Below that threshold, the coast is genuinely hard. Inland is cheaper but if I were European, I would want to live on the coast too. The people who stay long-term are the ones who came with realistic expectations, found their community, and stopped comparing it to somewhere else.
