Bakırköy at a glance
| Population | 218,204 (end of 2025); 219,893 a year earlier (TÜİK, address-based population results 2025) |
|---|---|
| Ataköy | 49,360 people in its four neighbourhoods (end of 2025) (TÜİK, neighbourhood populations) |
| Area | 29.22 km² (Bakırköy Municipality strategic plan 2025–29) |
| Coastline | About 7 km on the Sea of Marmara (Bakırköy Municipality, 2025 activity report) |
| Neighbourhoods | 15: Ataköy 1. Kısım, Ataköy 2-5-6. Kısım, Ataköy 3-4-11. Kısım, Ataköy 7-8-9-10. Kısım, Basınköy, Cevizlik, Kartaltepe, Osmaniye, Sakızağacı, Şenlikköy, Yenimahalle, Yeşilköy, Yeşilyurt, Zeytinlik, Zuhuratbaba (Bakırköy Municipality) |
| Boundaries | The D-100 (E-5) to the north, the Sea of Marmara to the south, the Çırpıcı stream and Zeytinburnu to the east, Küçükçekmece to the west (Bakırköy Municipality strategic plan 2025–29) |
| Marmaray stations along the coast | Yenimahalle, Bakırköy, Ataköy, Yeşilyurt, Yeşilköy, Florya Akvaryum, Florya (İBB rail station data) |
| Metro | M3 (since 10 March 2024): Bakırköy Sahil, Özgürlük Meydanı, İncirli. M1A: DTM-İstanbul Fuar Merkezi and Atatürk Airport, with more stations on the D-100 edge. M9: Ataköy (Metro İstanbul, M3 line) |
| Atatürk Airport | Closed to scheduled passenger flights on 6 April 2019; now cargo and private aviation (code ISL) (Bakırköy Municipality strategic plan; DHMİ) |
| Court for rent disputes | Sulh hukuk (civil peace) courts of the Bakırköy Courthouse, which serves Bakırköy, Bahçelievler, Bağcılar, Esenler, Güngören and Zeytinburnu (Bakırköy Courthouse) |
| Earthquake scenario | 782 buildings very heavily and 1,306 heavily damaged in a magnitude 7.5 earthquake (İBB model, sum of neighbourhood figures) (İBB open data) |
The shape of the district
Bakırköy was once far larger: it covered about 275 km² until Küçükçekmece was split off (created by a 1987 law, in effect from the 1989 local elections), followed in 1992 by Bahçelievler, Bağcılar and Güngören. Today it is a 29 km² strip between the D-100 and the sea, which the municipality describes in four parts: central Bakırköy, Ataköy, Yeşilköy and Florya. Florya is a name people use, not an official neighbourhood; its two Marmaray stations are in Şenlikköy and Basınköy.
Its population has been steady for two decades: 214,821 in 2007, a peak of 229,239 in 2019 and 218,204 at the end of 2025, according to TÜİK. Kartaltepe is the largest neighbourhood (34,375 people) and Ataköy 1. Kısım the smallest (1,550). Much of the Ataköy and Yeşilköy shoreline, with its coastal road, parks and marinas, stands on land reclaimed from the sea, the municipality notes.
Ataköy: a planned estate from the 1950s
Ataköy was built by the state-owned Emlak Kredi Bankası on the former Baruthane gunpowder works, which the bank bought in 1955. Construction began in 1957 and continued in eleven stages (kısım) into the 1990s, under the bank's project office with the Italian planner Luigi Piccinato as consultant; the plan was for a satellite town of 60,000 people. The municipality calls it one of Turkey's first modern satellite towns. Its first two stages alone hold 90 blocks of two to thirteen storeys and 1,514 flats.
For owners this history has a present-day edge. The architecture group Docomomo Turkey has campaigned for years to protect the first stages as an urban conservation site and argues for strengthening the buildings rather than rebuilding them, so an Ataköy block's renewal can involve a debate that a typical Istanbul apartment block does not. Today the four Ataköy neighbourhoods hold 49,360 people, almost a quarter of the district.
Transport
Bakırköy is well served by rail. Seven Marmaray stations run along its coast, from Yenimahalle to Florya, with trains through the tunnel under the Bosphorus to the Asian side. The M3 metro reached the district on 10 March 2024, with stations at Bakırköy Sahil, Özgürlük Meydanı and İncirli: at Özgürlük Meydanı it meets Marmaray and the Bakırköy high-speed train station, and at İncirli it meets the M1A metro and the metrobüs. The M1A line runs on to the exhibition centre and the old airport, and the M9 line starts at Ataköy, where it connects with Marmaray. İDO also lists a Bakırköy sea-bus pier.
A word of caution on names: the metrobüs and several M1A stations sit on the D-100, which is the district's northern boundary, and official datasets disagree about which district they belong to. The metrobüs stop called Florya is in Küçükçekmece, a long way from Florya's Marmaray station.
Atatürk Airport, in Yeşilköy, stopped handling scheduled passenger flights on 6 April 2019, when they moved to İstanbul Airport. It now handles cargo and private flights, and part of the site opened as a public park, the Atatürk Airport Nation's Garden, on 1 November 2025.
What the market is like
In our view, from working in the district, Bakırköy's defining feature is how little new land it has: there is almost no room for new building, while the coast, Marmaray and the new metro keep demand high. The result is a small, selective tenant market, with sea-facing and new-build flats in the gated developments along the coast at one end and older apartment blocks in central Bakırköy and Ataköy's early stages at the other. As with every district, the building and the floor set the rent more than the district average does.
Earthquake risk and urban transformation
The İBB's earthquake scenario (magnitude 7.5, at night) estimates 782 very heavily and 1,306 heavily damaged buildings across Bakırköy, with the highest counts in Yeşilköy, Şenlikköy and Kartaltepe; the four Ataköy neighbourhoods together account for 56 very heavily damaged buildings. These are model estimates, which the İBB says it is updating, not findings about any one building.
The municipality's 2025 report shows renewal moving building by building: 731 owners applied for the government's half-grant scheme ("Yarısı Bizden"), covering 578 homes and shops. Our urban transformation guide explains the process, and every flat needs compulsory earthquake insurance: buying or renewing DASK from abroad.
Complexes in Bakırköy we have owner guides for
- Sea Pearl Ataköy: 1,398 homes in 20-storey towers by Kuzu Grup, delivered in 2017 (East phase) and 2020 (West phase)
- Pruva 34: 239 large flats of 291–719 m² in seven blocks on Kennedy Caddesi by Doğa Şehircilik
Owning a flat in Bakırköy from abroad
Property tax on a Bakırköy flat is billed by Bakırköy Municipality and can be paid online through its e-Belediye service or through e-Devlet; our step-by-step guide covers each route. Sales and transfers go through the Bakırköy land registry office, in person or by power of attorney. Rent disputes for flats in Bakırköy are heard by the civil peace courts of the Bakırköy Courthouse; since September 2021 those courts sit in its annex in Yenibosna, Bahçelievler. Rent increases on renewal are capped by law each month: the latest legal cap.
We are a licensed agency with our office in Bahçelievler. Under property management we let the flat, collect the rent and look after it while you live abroad; nothing is charged while it stands empty. If it will stay empty, vacant property care covers visits, bills and keys. Not sure what it is worth today? Start with a free valuation in lira, euros and dollars.