Of course, such growth pales into insignificance compared to the 30% per annum that signified a “hot” or “investment-ready” market back in the boom days, but now we all know the folly of an overheating property market, we can see this slow and steady growth as being absolutely what you want to see in an emerging property market like Turkey.

The key will be to ensure that the steady growth can be maintained once the property market is opened up to all foreigners. In other news of the last few days, the government announced that the new bill concerning the property market had been drafted and was to go up for discussion. The main thing on the bill is a proposed end to the reciprocity law, which prevents people from countries that don’t allow Turks to buy on their soil, from buying property in Turkey.

Thus, if passed the bill would mean buyers from an additional 89 countries. Many of the countries are wealthy Arab states and their citizens are already flooding into Turkey on holiday. The Arab Spring made Turkey a hot favourite for Arab and Muslim holidays, and just before it Turkish PM Erdogan had signed visa-free deals with many Arab States. Adding to this the potential for opening up the property market to Arab buyers and we could be looking at a perfect storm scenario.

The bill would also increase the amount of property foreigners can buy from 2.5 hectares to 30 hectares or more if they have plans for a specific development. The bill would also open up more of Turkey to foreign buyers as well as making it easier for them to buy.

Low Costs

We built the Diamond Villas development at just the right time, we were able to give buyers a great deal in a growing market, and the upside on the finished product was incredible in the months and years after the resort was completed and opened.

At the time Altinkum was the next upcoming market. Of course, many markets were upcoming then as Turkey’s popularity as a holiday destination really started to fly, but Altinkum was the place were we found the lowest costs. This is again allowing us to give buyers an exceptional deal on top quality properties, and with a huge potential for gains.

Space

When we were doing our market research to choose our next location, we found that many places were already being heavily developed in Turkey, especially in the coastal locations. Given the success of Diamond Villas we wanted to do something bigger and better and we needed the space to do so. This is another reason why Altinkum made the shortlist and one of the main reasons it was chosen as the site for Apollon Holiday Village.

Emerging British Favourite

Altinkum was emerging as a favourite with Brits and it has not let us down in this respect. According to data from the local tourism office, 80% of the 67,000 tourists welcomed by Altinkum in 2009 were Brits. We are unashamedly British and we know first hand that Brits prefer to buy from British developers, especially in a foreign country.