Turkey Property Hotspots Part V: Side

Side is one of the ultimate property hotspots in Turkey, not least because it has everything an investor and holiday home investors look for when choosing where to buy.

Sun (300 days), Sea, a great harbour, an array of shops, loads of things to see and do, and all just £55km from the airport at Antalya, one of the best served and fastest growing airports in Turkey.

Side has a rich history dating back well before Christ to the era of Alexander the Great, who is mentioned as a marker of the town's history, because his conquering of the town marks one of the earliest entries in the town's history.

Alexander the Great's rule started a series of conquests and different rulers of the town, many of which left a stamp on the town, some of which can still be seen today. These sites, including a Roman-style Amphitheatre -- which is in good condition -- make great tourist attractions.

Like most Turkish resort towns, property in Side is cheap, and offers fantastic value for money when viewed in terms of quality and location. You can't get a property in a Mediterranean town for anywhere near the low cost of property in Side, let alone a town with as much potential as Side has.

So, it is little wonder that Side is one of Turkey's top tourist towns, and one of the greatest property hotspots as well.

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.