REPORTS / REAL ESTATE · OCT 2026
Who Does AI Recommend When You Look for a Home?
500 unbranded real estate questions produced 3,000 answers on six engines. Sahibinden leads, the three brands that lead to hepsiemlak.com draw level when counted together, and 180 answers still recommend portals whose addresses now lead to Hepsiemlak or nowhere.
INSIDE THE CONSOLE
MEASURED · 19 OCTOBER 2026The listings shelf
Answers naming each portal · orange ones now redirect to hepsiemlak.com
The engine changes the shelf
Share of answers that name a brand
Where the stale answers come from
Answers recommending Zingat, Hürriyet Emlak or Milliyet Emlak
Zingat lives on in the answers
A brand whose address leads elsewhere is still recommended
Recommended, rarely cited
Answers recommending Sahibinden against answers citing it
ENDEKSA: 51 RECOMMENDATIONS, 111 CITATIONS
The question universe
20 topics, 8 user types, all in Turkish
METHODOLOGY
500 unbranded questions, 6 answer engines, 3,000 answers
Every question was asked separately on six engines, from a Turkish location and in Turkish, on 19 October 2026. Brands were recorded in the order they appeared and cited sources by address.
20 topics, 8 user types
Twenty-five questions each on 20 topics, from listings portals, renting and mortgages to title deeds, valuations, urban renewal, investment, holiday homes, foreign buyers and taxes. 124 awareness, 243 consideration and 133 decision questions; only 17 name a brand.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral, DeepSeek, Meta Llama
ChatGPT and Gemini answers were taken from the apps people use, with web search on. Perplexity searches the web too; Mistral, DeepSeek and Meta Llama answer from what they learned in training.
Mentions, first place and sources
A brand counts at most once per answer. The first brand named in each answer and the sites the engine cited as sources were recorded separately.
Each brand’s current status was checked
The recommended portals’ addresses were opened to see where they lead today: zingat.com and hurriyetemlak.com redirect to hepsiemlak.com, and milliyetemlak.com does not resolve.
CRITICAL FINDINGS
In real estate, AI’s shelf is narrow and partly out of date
Sahibinden opens the list
Sahibinden appears in 72.3% of answers that name a listings portal. It is the first name in 11.1% of all branded answers; no other brand comes close.
Counted by where they lead, Hepsiemlak draws level
zingat.com and hurriyetemlak.com redirect to hepsiemlak.com today. Answers naming at least one of the three make up 9.6%; answers naming Sahibinden 9.6%. The engines split visibility that leads to one address across three brands.
Portals whose address changed are still recommended
180 answers recommend a portal whose address now redirects elsewhere or no longer resolves: Zingat in 163, Hürriyet Emlak in 100 and Milliyet Emlak in 21. 85.6% of them come from engines that do not search the web; ChatGPT named Zingat only once.
Being recommended and being cited are different things
Sahibinden was recommended in 287 answers but cited as a source in only 43. Endeksa was recommended in 51 and cited in 111. Sites that publish guides become the sites engines write their sentences from.
Ziraat Bankası for mortgages, RE/MAX for agencies
Ziraat Bankası appears in 67.9% of answers that name a bank. Global franchises take the top three places among agencies, with Turyap the first local chain in fourth; RE/MAX is in 71.2% of answers naming one.
The engine changes the shelf
86.2% of ChatGPT answers name a brand, against 34.4% on Meta Llama. 2,585 brands appear on one engine only.
THE RANKING
The 10 most visible commercial brands
How many of the 3,000 answers name each brand. Public bodies (e-Devlet, the land registry, the central bank, the capital markets board) are left out; they make up 8.5% of all mentions.
THE CATEGORY BREAKDOWN
Every kind of question has its own leader
Percentages are the share of answers naming at least one brand from that category.
Listings portal → Sahibinden
72.3% · then Emlakjet, Hepsiemlak, Zingat
Mortgages → Ziraat Bankası
67.9% · then Garanti BBVA, İş Bankası, Halkbank
Agencies → RE/MAX
71.2% · then Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Turyap
New-build developers → Emlak Konut
51.6% · then TOKİ, Sinpaş, Ağaoğlu
Valuation and data → Endeksa
58% · then Reidin, TSKB Gayrimenkul Değerleme
Commercial property → CBRE
76.7% · then JLL, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield
Loan comparison → Hesapkurdu
30.4% · then Sigortam, Findeks, Hangikredi
Public body → e-Devlet
21% · then TKGM, DASK, GİB
TOPIC MAP
Who leads on which question?
Twenty-five questions per topic, 150 answers across six engines. Named: the share of answers naming at least one brand or body. Leader: the share of answers naming the most-mentioned name.
EMPTY SHELVES
In 10 of 20 topics, no commercial brand stands out
On these topics no company reaches even 10% of answers. The answers lean on public bodies or small specialist sites; the shelf is open to the first brand that claims it.
Title deeds and paperwork
Most named: TKGM (28%). Strongest company: RE/MAX (1.3%). Most-cited site: tkgm.gov.tr.
Tenancy law and contracts
Most named: e-Devlet (8.7%). Strongest company: Hesapkurdu (2%). Most-cited site: mevzuat.adalet.gov.tr.
Taxes and costs
Most named: GİB (16.7%). Strongest company: Hesapkurdu (2.7%). Most-cited site: gib.gov.tr.
Property investment
Most named: SPK (8%). Strongest company: Emlakjet (4%). Most-cited site: deal-tr.com.
Land and plots
Most named: e-Devlet (12%). Strongest company: Sahibinden (4.7%). Most-cited site: turkiye.gov.tr.
Rental yield and letting
Most named: GİB (7.3%). Strongest company: Sahibinden (5.3%). Most-cited site: mevzuat.adalet.gov.tr.
SOURCES
Where does AI get its information?
ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity answers cited 9,415 sources across 2,908 different sites. The ten most-cited sites hold only 13.1% of them: the source shelf is far wider than the recommendation shelf.
Other independent sites · 43%
Specialist blogs, local sites and single-topic guides.
Public bodies · 15.3%
tkgm.gov.tr, turkiye.gov.tr, mevzuat.adalet.gov.tr
Agencies and property blogs · 9.8%
deal-tr.com, tekce.com, imtilak.net
Law firms and legislation · 7.8%
lexpera.com.tr, harbiyehukuk.com
Major listings portals · 5.7%
emlakjet.com, hepsiemlak.com, endeksa.com
Banks · 4.5%
yapikredi.com.tr, garantibbva.com.tr, isbank.com.tr
News sites · 4%
hurriyet.com.tr, cumhuriyet.com.tr, aa.com.tr
Insurers · 3.6%
allianz.com.tr, turkiyesigorta.com.tr
Comparison sites · 3.1%
hesapkurdu.com, hangikredi.com, sigortam.net
The bank recommended is not the bank cited
On mortgage questions Ziraat Bankası was recommended most (65 answers), while the most-cited bank pages were Yapı Kredi’s (48 times).
One product page is enough
Allianz’s Yuvam insurance page was cited 40 times. Allianz is the most-named insurer after the state earthquake pool, DASK.
USER TYPES
The shelf changes with who is asking
Percentages are the share of answers to that user type’s questions that name the brand.
First-time buyer · named 68.8%
Sahibinden 7.1% · Ziraat Bankası 6.8% · Emlakjet 6.3%
Living abroad · named 68.3%
Sahibinden 11% · Emlakjet 8.5% · RE/MAX 8.5%
Renter · named 65.6%
Sahibinden 17.4% · Emlakjet 13% · Hepsiemlak 10%
Investor · named 61.3%
Emlakjet 9.5% · Sahibinden 8% · Zingat 5%
Landlord · named 58.3%
Sahibinden 3.1% · Emlakjet 3.1% · Allianz 2.8%
Seller · named 56.5%
Sahibinden 15% · Emlakjet 10.1% · Zingat 7.5%
Student · named 50.6%
Sahibinden 20.7% · Facebook Marketplace 9.8% · Emlakjet 8%
Retiree or holiday-home seeker · named 49.5%
Emlakjet 7.8% · Hepsiemlak 6.4% · Sahibinden 4.9%
WHAT TO DO
A first step for every kind of player
Each recommendation rests on this measurement; the evidence sits beside it.
Listings portals
Publishing guides earns citations: Emlakjet was cited in 119 answers, Hepsiemlak in 110, Sahibinden in 43. Crawlable guides on rent increases, title deed costs and valuations turn a recommendation into a citation.
Banks
A mortgage page should answer the question directly: terms, documents, a worked example. Yapı Kredi’s pages were cited 48 times; Ziraat Bankası, the most recommended, 23 times.
Agencies
Global chains hold the top three agency places. On investment and neighbourhood questions a small English-language property blog was cited 120 times: a local agency that writes city and neighbourhood guides can become its area’s source.
Developers
On earthquake safety and urban renewal the strongest company reaches only 6.7%; answers rely on ministry pages. A developer that publishes its project’s code compliance and soil survey openly would have this shelf to itself.
Insurers
Allianz became a source 40 times through one product page. A page that explains cover, exclusions and claims in plain language writes the engines’ sentences for them.
Brands whose address changed
Engines that do not search the web keep recommending old names (180 answers). Pages and current sources that state in plain text where the old name leads today help the next model versions learn it.
When a site’s address changes, an AI’s memory does not. Engines that do not search the web keep recommending brands whose address now leads somewhere else.
Real Estate AI Visibility Report, October 2026Brantial Research
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