Introduction - on this page you will find links to
details of Turkish holiday homes for sale, Turkish holiday
rental accommodation and shared housing in
Turkey.... Turkey is a well known tourist spot for UK holidaymakers,
famous for its warm clear seas, good beaches and laid back seaside resorts, and
the colourful noisy city of Istanbul with its mosques and minarets and markets,
and the ever present ‘call to prayer’ echoing over the city. It has something to
offer everyone. Turkey has two of the seven Wonders of the World, the Artemis
Temple in Efes and the Halikarnassos Mausoleum in Bodrum. With its feet in
both South East Asia and South Western Asia, the country borders the Black Sea,
the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It has over 5,000 miles of stunning
coastline and shares its land borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Its capital Ankara, has an interesting
old quarter, although most people associate Istanbul as the main city in the
country. Many people believe that Turkey’s Mount Ararat is where Noah’s Ark
landed after the floods.
The Turkish Property Market
- Turkey is at the beginning of a potentially massive property boom. The laws
relating to property ownership by foreigners changed in 2003, and again in 2006
– and since then property prices have been rising fast, with developers buying
up large parcels of land. Foreigners are now allowed to buy property in towns
but not in villages or rural areas. The number of UK property investors has
increased five fold from 2003. Several foreign companies are investing heavily
in Turkey – Citibank and HSBC have bought five banks, Tesco has purchased a
supermarket chain, and some European car manufacturers will be moving their
manufacturing facilities to Turkey where labour is cheaper. Some golf clubs are
being built to meet foreign leisure demand. The most popular areas for property
purchase are on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts where most of the tourist
activity is based. Towns like Bodrum, Fethiye, Marmaris, Gumbet,Oludeniz,
Antalya, Didim and Akbuk where buy-to-let properties have a ready made market
with the 25 million tourists who flock to Turkey each year. Types of property
range from luxury villas, to town houses and apartments. There are good
prospects for both growth and income in Turkey, with growth expected to be in
the region of 12%- 20% p.a. in 2008. As yet the market is young so there are not
the ex-pat communities from the UK that there are in some other countries, and
it would be fair to say that most investors buy as second homes or for rental
income rather than as retirement homes at present.
How to Buy a Property for Sale in Turkey -
Turkey offers very good value for money. But property investment in Turkey is an
emerging market and as such is not yet as regulated as other countries. It is
therefore essential that you get proper English speaking professional advice.
Many existing houses may not have proper titles or have received proper formal
planning permission. This is less likely with the new building developments, but
caution is still advised. Always play safe. The first step in the process is to
enter a reservation contract. Taking the property off the market for up to 4
weeks. The reservation fee payable will vary between 3,000 to 6,000 euros. If
you later opt out due to a legal problem then you will get your deposit back. If
you opt out due to a change of mind, your deposit will be lost. The next
step is a preliminary contract, with a deposit of 10% for an existing house and
30% for an off-plan (new build) house. Once ready the buyer pays the due taxes
and the contract or deed of sale (tapu) is completed, and signed at the land
registry. As with off-plan developments in other countries you will be required
to pay staged payments during the build process. Note that for new build
off-plan purchases, there is no system for bank guarantees for the developer, so
it is extremely important to ensure that you only buy from developers with
proven track records and experience, and that you check this out with your
lawyer.
There
are some taxes to pay when you invest. A buyer’s tax of 1.5% on the declared
price of the property, a transfer tax of 3%. Annual taxes are a property tax of
0.1% on the value, and community tax for services of about 16 euros a year.
However as an incentive, foreigners are exempt from the annual property tax for
the first five years, and there is no capital gains tax if the property is held
for more than 5 years. CGT is payable at between 25% -35% depending on the
property value. Earthquake insurance is compulsory in Turkey, so use one of the
specialist insurance websites to get this cover.
You
may well need to finance for your investment. The position in Turkey is a little
different from other countries, with Turkish mortgages only having been offered
since 2006 to foreigners. Loans are available for properties less then 10 years
old between 5 and 20 years. Get professional advice to see if it would be better
to re-mortgage a UK property, or to take out a Euro mortgage on the Turkish
property. If you want value for money, good growth potential, linked to a laid
back way of life and a comparatively low cost of living, then property
investment in Turkey is for you. Turkey appears to be at the beginning of a
property boom.
Buildings & Architecture – Turkey has a wonderful mix
of some of the world’s greatest architecture: Ottoman, Roman, Hellenic,
Hellenistic, Byzantine, Seljuk. As a result buildings vary enormously between
the ornate, tiled and extravagant to the very simple and plain. In their
homeland in Central Asia, Turks lived in dome shaped tents and it was this shape
that influenced later architecture.
Between 1300 and 1453 the Ottoman empire gave rise to the now well known single
domed mosques. Part of the culture was to have baths, soup kitchens, hospitals
and tombs alongside the mosque building.
After
1950 the sumptuousness of some buildings changed to match modern needs of
practical local planning, day to day needs and modern construction materials. By
the 1970s many of the old traditional buildings had been converted into
restaurants and hotels for public use, although intriguingly there was a return
to classical styles of architecture, similar to the ‘retro’ fashion in the UK.
Old
traditional Turkish houses were built to be functional, durable, with the
entrance to the house often through an inner door opening on to the garden.
Rooms were built round an interior courtyard (sofa), and many rooms had storage
cupboards lining the walls as built in furniture. Often long seats were placed
in front of the windows, doubling up as beds, leaving the middle of the room
empty. Families lived mainly on the upper floor, whilst the ground floor was
used as a service area.
Materials used in the houses depended on the region. Houses were built generally
of stone and wood in the south and west, and mud brick and wood in the centre
and eastern parts of Turkey.
Safranbolu (where the spice saffron originated from) is in Karabuk on the
northern Black Sea coast, is included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list, and
is a rich historical example of different types of architecture in the 18th and
19th centuries.
Current building styles follow mainly Western European styles in new build
properties. Property investment is popular not only for retirement properties
but also as holiday lettings and second homes.
History and Culture - Turkey has a population of over 76 million, with
the lira as its currency at a rate of 2.33 New Turkish Lira to the pound
sterling (2008), and an inflation rate of 8%, although forecasts are that this
will slow to 6% by end 2008. The climate is warm with about 300 days of sunshine
a year. For 600 years the Islamic Ottoman empire reigned in Turkey, but in
the 1920s it collapsed and Turkey became a secular democratic state. This means
that although 99% of the Turkish population are Moslems, no one has to follow
any particular religion, and in 1924 the country rejected Shariah law. The
remaining 1% of the population is Christian and Jewish. Although
military rule came to an end in 1982 with the adoption of a new constitution and
the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Turkey's military still has a place
in politics, although the government is a multi-party system Turkey joined the
UN in 1945 and in 1952 became a member of NATO, and in 1964 became an associate
member of the EU. Historically known as a poor country, with some human
rights issues, over the past decade Turkish politicians have undertaken many
reforms to align democracy and economy to the rest of Europe enabling Turkey to
begin accession membership talks with the European Union. As a result of its
history Turkey has a complex identity, balanced sometimes uneasily between the
West and the East.
Healthcare
- like many countries, Turkey has a public health system, but owing to limited
funding, standards may not be as good as they are in the UK. Foreign residents
are required to pay for their healthcare. A good well run private healthcare
system sits alongside the public one, with all the private hospitals employing
English speaking staff, and many of the larger hospitals have agreements with UK
private healthcare providers such as BUPA and medical insurance companies.
Education in Turkey is compulsory from age 6 to 14, with optional secondary
education from 14 to 18. Schools are over overcrowded and there is a private
schooling system as a consequence. Until recently, many girls did not attend
school as it was not seen as their role to be educated. In higher education
there are 53 state universities and 23 private universities. Due to the property
boom some schools are beginning to offer language lessons for foreign residents.
How to Get There - Airflight time to Turkey is
approximately 4 hours from the UK, flying mainly to Dalaman or Bodrum on the
west coast, and some 25 airlines operate services, including the budget airline
Easyjet. Turkey is 2 hours ahead of the UK. You will need a tourist visa if you
coming from the UK (£10 in 2007), which you buy as you enter the country.
Tourism and Entertainment – Turkish restaurants and bars are cheap, and
the food, whilst somewhat basic, is plentiful. Be prepared to eat lots of
barbecued lamb and fish and the iconic doner kebab! Although the population is
mainly Moslem, alcohol is widely available (although not in the Ramadan period
outside of your hotel). Raki (an aniseed based drink) is a national drink, to be
treated with utmost respect as it can give humungous hangovers! Strong black
(sweet) Turkish coffee is a well known alternative for teetotallers.
Key
pastimes at the coast are water-skiing, snorkelling and diving, with dive
centres in most of the Mediterranean resorts. For those who live to shop,
markets are great fun in Turkey comprising everything you could ever wish to buy
– visit the Kapali Carsi Bazaar in Istanbul for jewellery, antiques and carpets.
Don’t forget to haggle hard in markets – the shopkeeper expects you to, it is
part of the culture. If you need to travel between towns and villages, try the
dolmus - a cross between a bus and a taxi. They run on a fixed routes stopping
to pick-up and drop-off passengers anywhere along the roadside. Fares are set,
so when you get on state your destination and pass your money to the driver, who
will return any change. You will need to wave at the driver to get on, and yell
at him to get off! Istanbul is built on two continents with its bridges crossing
the Bosphorous river. When visiting Istanbul, a visit to one of its most
impressive buildings, the Blue Mosque, is must for sheer wow factor. Known as
the supreme Imperial Mosque of the Ottomon Empire, it was completed in 1616 by
Mehmet Aga, Imperial Architect, and features 260 windows which filter sunlight
onto the internal blue and green Iznik tiles. With its tall thin towers and
onion shaped turrets, it is a far cry from the solid shapes of English
cathedrals.
Haghia
Sophia Museum is also worth a visit whilst in Istanbul, and is a great example
of Byzantine art. It was built by Justinian in 6th century AD as a church,
becoming a museum in 1936. When your feet are sore from visiting all the
markets and famous buildings, mosques and churches, hop into a Turkish Bath (hamam)
for a gentle steam away of all your cares. You have to experience it just once
in your life! Further south down the coast, the white salt mountains and
blue lakes at Pamukkale are one of the natural wonders of the world. Formed over
14,000 years ago, the water is reputed to be able to ease rheumatism, heart and
kidney diseases. Many tours visit this attraction. Again on the west coast,
Ephesus is an example of one of the best-preserved ancient cities in the world,
dating back to the 12 century BC. About 15-20% of the buildings have been
excavated, including the Celsus Library, Terrace Houses, the Theatre, one whole
street, the public baths and the brothel. If visiting in the Summer,
temperatures can be well into the 40s and as there is no shade in the
excavations, be sure to take a hat and plenty of water. Cappadocia is also one
of the most visited geological areas in the country, with the underground cities
of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu , the cave dwellings and the Valley of the Fairy
Chimneys. This area is situated in the Middle Anatolian region and was one of
the most important places in the spreading of the Christian religion.
