Dynamics of the intra-urban hierarchy in Istanbul’s metropolitan area

Abstract

Istanbul has been among Europe’s most dynamic cities in terms of urban development and the commercial real estate market since 2000. The city went through a rapid geographical expansion with new infrastructure corridors being built. As such, locations and location hierarchy in the city have shown a high degree of dynamics. The main office CBD area has shifted a couple of times in the last 50 years, and a series of new sub-CBD’s have emerged on strategic locations created by new infrastructure in the last decade. Modern shopping center development, which started in 1988, has been highly dynamic, especially in the last decade. With almost four million m2 GLA shopping center space, Istanbul is by far the largest market in Turkey and one of the largest metropolitan markets in Europe. Though top highstreet locations have been relatively stable in the top of the hierarchy, the hierarchy of shopping center location changed dramatically because of location, scale and concept evolution. Given the forecasted demographic growth and the massive urban development task, the commercial real estate market in Istanbul is likely to be among the most dynamic ones in Europe.