European Property Investment: Hard to Find Turkey’s Equal

When you look at the growth of the Turkish economy, the profits of Turkish banks and just the volume of positive information coming out of Turkey right now, it is hard to find its equal, or even a close competitor in Europe.

Turkey is an emerging market, and so any investment in the country must still be considered risky, but according to experts it is very close to receiving an investment grade rating from ratings agencies.

With emerging market investments risk can come from the banking system, the currency, the political system. But with Turkey all those things are creating minimal risk now, and in the foreseeable future. Both the banking system and the currency/foreign reserves system were overhauled and received a serious of reforms in the 2001 Turkish financial crisis, and the success of these reforms is now proven in the way Turkish banks have barely been affected and recorded strong profits throughout the Turkish recession in 2009, fuelling the way the Turkish economy has rebounded from said recession.

Don’t get me wrong, unemployment is still a massive problem for Turkey, and it still has a long way to go before it can call itself a developed economy, but for investors looking for growth in Europe in the next 5 years, it is hard to see anywhere bringing anywhere near the returns Turkey looks capable of.

What’s more the Turkish government seems determined to re-invest in future growth. Recent announcements have included a 400 million lira investment to make Izmir a yachting centre within Turkey and Europe. The announcement was made at the opening of the 15 million euro Cesme marina, and the investment will start with the expansion of Izmir port. Just some of the aforementioned positive news coming out of Turkey.

Turkey Property Hotspots Part IV: Dalaman

Dalaman is one of the ultimate Turkey property hotspots, well it has to be: Dalaman is the reason why Turkey overtook Spain as the top tourism destination for British travellers in 2008.

What? I hear you ask. No, of course it didn’t really. See what happened was (read in Devonshire accent and sound like British hit comedian Jethro), a member of ABTA published the top 10 destinations for British travellers in 2008, and Dalaman was in first place. Because of this and the accompanying press reports, the mistake was made that Turkey was the top destination for British travellers.

I found this out when I called ABTA in late 2009 after the report remerged. ABTA confirmed that British visitors to Turkey in 2008 was about 2 million, while Spain received 11 million visitors. They did say that Spain was now stagnant while Turkey was growing at 20-25 percent per year.

Anyway, digression over the important thing here is that Dalaman was the most popular destination for British travellers in 2008, if anyone has figures for 2009 we’d love to see them. There is however no indication that it would have shrunk, while the increase in new flights to Dalaman international airport is an indication that it would have grown.

Being a tourism driven market, this is a massive highlighter to the waves of young investors and holiday home investors to choose Dalaman property to make their Turkish property investment.

Turkey Property Hotspots Part III: Fethiye

Fethiye is our favourite Turkish property hotspot, and in our opinion will be one of the most popular places for low budget foreigners to buy property in the coming 5 years.

Fethiye has everything that savvy buyers are told to look for when buying overseas property:

Long Season: Fethiye enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year, with very little rain (basically no rain during the summer, and very little in other seasons except winter).

Shops: Fethiye has all the shops that a holidaymaker could possibly need, including supermarkets, pharmacists etc. The majority of shops are open all year round

Dining Options: Fethiye has a wide variety of restaurants, from small “British-style” cafes, to crème-de-la-crème restaurants offering fine cuisine from around the world. Again, most of the restaurants are also open all year round.

Accessibility: Fethiye is just 30 miles from Dalaman international airport, which is well served by flights from the UK and other European destinations.

Beaches + Activities: Fethiye has great beaches and many activities for tourists to enjoy, including horse-riding and charter boat trips from the harbour, on top of the traditional pastimes like Tennis etc.

All these things make Fethiye very attractive to tourists, which, along with the low prices, makes Fethiye property to holiday home buyers. The package, as well as rising tourism also makes Fethiye attractive to investors.

But property in Fethiye has an ace up its sleeve: it is less than half an hour away from Olu Deniz, the most beautiful bay in Turkey, and arguably one of the world’s most beautiful coastal spots. Olu Deniz is protected and finding property for sale there is very difficult, thus Fethiye property is purchased by those wanting a home in Fethiye, and those wanting somewhere close to Olu Deniz.

Turkish Property Hotspots Part II: Antalya

Antalya is a place near-certain to become an overseas property hotspot in the coming months and years.

It has everything that property buyers are looking for in a holiday home investment: plenty of shops, a wide variety of dining options, great beaches, a long hot and dry season and great accessibility from its own international airport.

Antalya, like most of Turkey also offers among the lowest property prices in the world, and this is one of the main reasons why Antalya seems destined to become a hotspot; because of the potential for an increase in low-budget buyers.

Europe is currently struggling to recover from one of the worst recessions the world has ever seen, and almost everyone is feeling the pinch. Thus, more and more people will be looking for cheaper places to enjoy holidays, and this will highlight Turkey and places like Antalya no end.

Antalya is one of Turkey's upcoming Mediterranean regions, and so, as well as putting you in a top class European resort, it also puts you in range of many more, including Side, which is famous for its rich history dating back to Alexander the Great.

Even with all this going for it, you can still buy studio apartments in Antalya from as little as 30,000 euros, and 2 bedroom apartments a little inland for 33,000 euros.

Because Antalya is hot news at the moment, off plan development is massive, and there are many opportunities to buy off plan properties at prices even lower than normal.

Turkish Property Hotspots Part I: Alanya

I have chosen to cover Alanya first because it isn’t a hotspot yet, but boy is it looking likely to be.

Alanya has the largest population of British expatriates in the world, where they are joined by fellow expatriates from nations throughout Europe and the World, and tourists from the four corners of Turkey and other short-haul destinations.

The key words in that paragraph are: expatriates, and short-haul. That is because the nearest airport to Alanya was Antalya over an hour away. While Antalya airport is one of the best served in Turkey, no one wants to travel for an hour on foreign public transport or a hire car, in the searing heat, (and for those in hire cars unknown roads) after travelling several hours on a plane (4 approx depending on which UK airport you depart from).

Thus, those who are within short-haul flight distance, and expats have flocked to the undiscovered beauty of Alanya. Well, guess what, it is about to be discovered. The long-controversial Gazipasa airport just a few minutes from Alanya began serving the domestic route to and from Istanbul last month.

Many people thought that the airport would never actually open, even when current operators TAV started running test flights still people were dubious. Now that the airport is receiving and sending passengers, we can believe a lot more readily the statements from TAV that international flights will follow next year, once the runway expansion work is completed.

Alanya with its own international airport will be an almost unstoppable force. I would even go so far as to predict its being one of the great success stories of the 2011/12 fiscal year and beyond.

Watch this space for news on new Alanya property developments, new flights, and much more as the market hots up.

3 Reasons People are Buying Property in Turkey

Property in Turkey is big news at the moment. We are seeing more and more websites coming up offering Turkish property, and more and more of the investment property specialists (those surviving) offering Turkish property. Here are 3 reasons why Turkish property is so hot right now.

1: Rapid Economic Growth

Turkish GDP grew 11.7% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter of last year, following a year on year growth of 6% in Q4 2009, according to data from the Turkish statistical body Turkstat.

Yes, it is true that GDP shrunk 14% in Q1 last year, but in a Europe when none of the big hitters -- Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK – grew by more than 2%, having contracted in Q4 it is easy to see why Turkey is making the headlines. Especially when its growth is up there with that of China.

Property prices will grow naturally during times of economic growth, as inflation pushes up labour and material costs.

2: Continued Tourism Growth

The latest data on tourism from the tourism ministry shows that Turkish tourism grew 9.6% in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of last year. The growth is thanks in large part to growth in visitors from Russia, Bulgaria, Syria and Iran, filling a drop from Britain.

The overseas property segment of the Turkish property market is very much tourism-dependant because those buying will usually plan to rent out their property for an additional income.

3: Growing Confidence

Right now, you can hardly pass a week without hearing good news from Turkey, new marinas,, new investments, new resorts, new hotels from the big chains and new flights. What’s more there is very little in the way of negative news – like developments cancelled, or investors out of pocket -- to temper the positive. Confidence is a very big factor in overseas property purchases at the minute, and all this news continues to build confidence in the Turkish market, and will continue to drive buyers.