Moving to Istanbul

Hi Mrs. Monkey

I hope you will enjoy the great city' Istanbul'.
Levent is like the Wall Street of Istanbul. Most of the headquarters of big international companies are located in that area. Also it is on the metro route.
Taksim is the heart of the city and Gumussuyu and Cihangir are the neighborhoods nearby. Those two areas are very popular among expats. Thats a nice spot of the city' right in the very center. You can reach Levent by metro from Taksim in 15 minutes. Taksim is also the perfect place to socialize with the locals and foreigners as well.

I bet you have many questions ahead. Please feel free to ask anything.

Damla

Moving to Istanbul?Oh you mad thing you but welcome anyway :)
A couple of good web sites to get you started are mymerhaba.com ,Turkish Living .com and turkey central.com .These are all expats sites.There are actually many many expats of many nationalities in Istanbul but in a city of 14 million people it isn't always easy to find them.But you should be able to glean a fair bit of info from those sites and of course you can post up asking for more and also to see if anyone would like to meet you or if there are any get togethers planned.
Although your company is in Levent is this where you will actually work or will you be out and about?If the latter then you can live anywhere-even over on the Asian side where housing is cheaper.If you have to schlep into the office every day then you need somewhere reasonably close due to the disaster that is Istanbul traffic.
Beyoğlu,Taksim,Cihangır etc .are nice but pricey(hope you're getting a good salary!).Consider also the districts of Kağıthane,Gayrettepe and Mecidiyeköy which are a mixture of business and regular residential area's.
When you first arrive it will probably be best to do a deal with a B&B for a 2 or 3 week stint and use the time to walk around a few neighbourhoods to get a feel for them,check out local estate agencies(emlak ofisi)and see how easy it would be to get to work each day all the while knowing at least you have a bed for the night after each days search :)
Once you find somewhere that ticks all your boxes,then you can move in knowing you'll be settled.Does your new company not have anyone who can assist you with this,perhaps suggesting area's to look or reliable estate agencies to use?Looking from the UK isn't a lot of use-we all know how their adverts tell lies!You need to be here on the ground and see places with your own eyes.
Good luck,hope it all works out great for you,house,job,life,everything!

Great advice from sarıkanarya. You might even be able to room with a colleague for a week or two before you can find a place or you could do some couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=273)

I totally agree that you should try to find a place that is close enough to your work to, if possible, walk. Getting around the city can be anything from a major headache to a nightmare. You do not want to fight traffic getting to and from work. It will add hours to your day.

Ask your employer if they provide a service bus that will pick you up and return you to your home. Most companies and schools have this service, something a lot of foreigners are not aware of. Even if they do, do NOT try live a long distance away by road traffic.

Also ask your employer to ask a future colleague to contact you and assist you in getting settled. If they hired you then I am sure there will be a mix of Turkish and foreign colleagues from whom you can get a lot of useful information.

If you decide to look for a place on the Asian side, look at Çengelköy or anywhere that has a ferry stop that goes to Beşiktaş. We lived there for two years and enjoyed it. At the time it had all the charm of a village with local shops for almost everything coupled with the ability to easily get to the city by ferry because it has an iskele or ferry station. I used to take the ferry to Beşiktaş (very pleasant), hopped on a bus to Taksim which took between 10-15 minutes, and then either walked or took a service bus to my work place near Taksim. I could have walked to Kabataş in about 10 minutes and taken the funicular.
See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport_in_Istanbul

Assuming (from your user name) that you're a woman, there's an active Facebook group called "Foreign Women of Istanbul" where people share a lot of useful information. There's also the International Women of Istanbul (IWI) and an InterNations group based here. Best of luck with your move.

Hi there! I have a query of the same nature, all the rpelies to this have been very useful and i've noted stuff down, my message is just a little more neurotic and worried! Please see below:)

In a few months I am moving from Manchester, UK to Istanbul to learn Turkish and teach English/find an internship in a charity. Despite being half Turkish I am quite unaware of the best places to look for flats and house shares. If anybody could give me any advice it would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I have been to Istanbul few times so am a roughly familiar with its geography, but as you know it is gigantic so there's still so much I have to learn!

What I am looking for: I would like to live in a house share, ideally with young Turks (to improve my Turkish) and for it to be very cheap, I am not bothered (or can afford!) anywhere fancy; I imagine a standard student type house will be my best bet. So realistically I will probably just be looking for a room in an already existing house share. Kadikoy would be the ideal location, or somewhere equally as cheap, I would prefer the Asian side I think.

However what I am baffled about, even after an obligatory google search, is where to find these flats online. I have looked on Craig's list (a website just listing rooms available) which seems very useful but other than that I think I need some local knowledge. Also, I am wondering how to go about viewing houses when I am there and actually going about renting them out. I am wondering how different the procedure is to in England. For example the way i've done it here is that I either go to a letting agency and look at the places they have available and then sign a year long contract through them. Or I find landlords on things like gumtree, contact them directly, they take us round to see the house and then if I like it I sign a year long contract with them. If anybody could let me know if its the same procedure in Turkey that would be great. Are such things as letting agencies as available there, or is my best bet just to keep searching on similar sites such as craigs list, contact the people advertising the room directly, arrange a viewing with them and take it from there?

I don't know whether the contracts are the same type of thing as here, i.e usually in lengths of 6 months/year long term tenancies.

I think in short I just need a long list of websites advertising rooms!! I will be in Istanbul for roughly 2 weeks to look for a room before I start the Turkish course, if anyone could let me know whether they think that is enough time then please do let me know! I see someone above has said 2-3 weeks is a good amount of time, so that's hopeful. I would be doing it all day, none of the tourist stuff, been there done that!

What a long ramble..........I hope that all makes sense and that somebody is able to give me advice:)

Like I said on my profile, if anybody wants to know the same things, or anything, about Manchester then let me know as I love it so much that I will be happy to talk about it with equal length:D

Thanks guys, Dalya. x

Asking on the expat web sites could get you some replies for shared accomodation but you will seldom come across it from estate agencies.Often they are advertised within the universities on campus,often even just with notices in local shops(yes I know not a lot of help to you whilst you're still in the UK!).
You could also try looking on airbnb.com which has some great places and perhaps as a stop gap measure Couchsurfing.com-they are often younger people...who know other younger people...who may need a new house mate.Very often here things work on a network basis of who knows who needs XXX and who is looking for YYY.Once you are here this will be easier for you to do and at least you have more or less narrowed down the area you want to live in which will save you some time and legwork :)
Usually one signs a contract for however long(could be the owners stipulation or yours but usually a minimum of 6 months)and even if they say oh don't worry about it you would be better to have one even for a room in a house share.If everything is in black and white then at no point in the future can misunderstandings arise,protection for both parties.
You could also contact the course school and ask if they know of anyone or could recommend where to look.
Good luck!

Turkeycentral.com is a really good site for people moving to or living in Turkey.

Here is a forum discussion that may be useful:
http://www.turkeycentral.com/topic/2979-real-estate-or-estate-agent-needed-in-istanbul-area/

Estate / rental companies are emlak in Turkish. An estage agent him/herself are an emlakcı.

One of the posts mentions walking around in an area before you decide. Good advice, sometimes there are for rent signs (kiralık) posted and a phone number. Most emlakcı speak enough English to deal with your questions. If the sign says sahibinden kiralık then it means by owner and you may need a translator. If you stay long term, you should get some sort of lease or rental agreement signed. That protects both of you. You will need to pay a notary or translator for the English version of the contract and then have both signed in the presence of a notary and then notarized.

Thank you so much to both of you for the useful information - stuff I couldn't have known without local knowledge! I think I deifnitely will find it a lot easier when I go there and start talking to people. Couchsurfing I think might be really useful. The websites are really useful also, cheers. Will let you know if I have any more questions!

Hello all, sorry I took so long to respond but thank you very much for your help - especially Sarikanarya. Dalyahind - let me know how you get on. My future employer has recommended the websites sahibinden.com, hurriyetemlak.com and milliyetemlak.com for finding accommodation if they help.

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted x