Buying a Holiday Home in Turkey

airhostess

hethmar wrote: »

You can stay in Malta in a good hotel full board for less than a £100 a week - why not do that instead and not have the worry of a year round holiday home? Check out Chevron Holidays - real bargains.

That's amazing!! If the UK economy gets too bad everyone can just go to Malta and sit it out. (If you don't have a mortgage to pay... and you get made redundant and your unemployment insurance pays you at least £400 per month... - not a bad plan B!!:D )

hethmar

Ive been tempted and Im not even a coffin dodger yet I received an offer through the post last week - all in week at a 5 star spa in Malta - all meals and drinks plus snacks and spa treatments for £399 for 7 nights. Very tempting.

Ill give a link to chevron. I got tired out one year and ended up flying to a 3 star in Malta in late Feb full board for a week including flight £127 with these people - admittedly booked only 2 weeks before though. In the hotel were lots of elderly people who go there for the whole winter and get cheaper rates. They said it was cheaper than being at home and they could sit in the sun and be waited on - so it was a no brainer for them.
http://www.chevron.co.uk/index.asp

WINTER 08/09
LONG STAY SPECIAL OFFERS
PRICES FROM £406 PP 28NTS HB
CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS

Sapphire

pickledpink wrote: »

Isn't Turkey on an eartquake line?:eek:

Yes, some of it is on a fault line, including Istanbul. If you have ever visited the Aegean coastline, for example, and visited any of the plethora of archaeological sites, you will see that many of them were destroyed by earthquakes.

I tend to go to Turkey every year (family connections). Didn't go this year, but my sister and brother-in-law did and said that because of the weak pound, everything over there was much higher in price that it was last year. That will apply to property.

pickledpink

They have the occasional terrorist attack too. Marmaris (a very tacky resort - bit like Blackpool by all accounts) was bombed last year. I'm sure a few holidaymakers were kiled too.

rumbaba

Thank you everyone for your suggestions - it's certainly given us food for thought.

I must say how surprised I am to hear such negative views about Turkey as I rather like the country. We have holidayed there several times and always found it very peaceful and scenic. Perhaps we were fortunate in our choice of resort; we went to a little place called Kalkan which is on the south coast and also stayed in the beach resort of Patara. We thought it was stunningly pretty there.

We have heard that Marmaris is very tacky, and we would also avoid Altinkum and Kusudasi as they are very run down and tacky too.

But I do have a soft spot for Kalkan. Unfortunately my husband has serious doubts about Turkey now, and hearing all this stuff about its troubles I suppose I do too. You can never really tell what a country is like when on holiday I guess.

North Cyprus? That sounds intersting. Not sure about Morocco; is it more westernised than it used to be? We went to Tangiers many years ago and travelled down the coast to Larache, but found some of the areas a little bit grubby. Has it improved since then?

Many thanks in advance

ad44downey

rumbaba wrote: »

We were thinking of buying a holiday home out there as we heard property isn't selling so we should get a bargain,s

That's a strange definition of bargain I must say. If you buy something that no-one else will buy then that means that it's effectivley worthless. That is no bargain.

pickledpink

ad44downey wrote: »

That's a strange definition of bargain I must say. If you buy something that no-one else will buy then that means that it's effectivley worthless. That is no bargain.

Another 'bargain' Turks are fond of offering is promising a guaranteed rental income for 2 years, say, of £10,000 , but they've already added that figure to the purchase price!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

So you just get your own money back, while they rent out YOUR property and pocket the income!:eek:

I've also heard that property depreciates in Turkey:money:

So NO - there are no bargains!:rotfl:

gipsybabe

Hi
Before you completely discount Turkey, have a good look at www.turkishliving.com . You will find some horror stories but also great advice and non-horror stories as well. Personally buying in Turkey was the best thing I ever did and did not come across any horrors. But do your homework first, definately visit and check the area first.
Good luck.

Fethiye_2

I don't recognise the Turkey many of you are discussing here. Many misinformed facts and opinions. A bottle of Bells whisky is NOT £40, it is 62 lira which is nearly half that! Restaurants expensive? Depends where you go. Top quality non-tourist ones can offer a superb meal for 8 lira (£3.17) and you can wash that down with a couple of beers and enjoy a night out for a fiver. Or you can go for Shepherd's Pie or roast beef & Yorkshire pudding and watch the sunset and pay top dollar prices for non-Turkish menus.

Yes Turkey is in an earthquake zone and yes many have died - the earlier quoted example from 1999 doesn't mention the Government introduced regulations that were implimented soon after which address specifically the ability of structures to withstand earthquakes.

Yes people get ripped off. People don't do their homework until after they bought then realise that all the information is out there. Companies like Assured Estate prevent the risk of handing over tens of thousands of pounds to someone you only met five minutes ago, by not handing over any money at all until the property is finished to specification and the title deed ready to be transferred into the buyers name. Still, people buy from a some of the many smooth talking barmen and waiters who promise to get the "real price" not the "English price". Guess which one is higher? The one where the waiter demanded £8,000 for bringing the client to the developer.

Yes, there is a pretty stagnant market, primarily due to over supply and falling demand, but quality always sells. Location, design, build quality. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of rubbish in Turkey if you want to invest in cheap rubbish. Pre-1999 properties sell at very attractive prices, they are pre-earthquake regulations. Believe me, if you sell something cheap enough, some fool will fall in love with it. Long term I believe it to be a decent investment if you do your homework and avoid the pitfalls (same for any country). There are good rental returns for the right properties too. Maybe you can't buy today for 60k and sell next week for 75k anymore over in Turkey, but I'll wager that if you spend 100k on property in Turkey, it'll be worth more than a 100k property in the UK in two years time, and you can enjoy it in the meantime.

Give Turkey a break!

pickledpink

Fethiye wrote: »

I don't recognise the Turkey many of you are discussing here. Many misinformed facts and opinions. A bottle of Bells whisky is NOT £40, it is 62 lira which is nearly half that! Restaurants expensive? Depends where you go. Top quality non-tourist ones can offer a superb meal for 8 lira (£3.17) and you can wash that down with a couple of beers and enjoy a night out for a fiver. Or you can go for Shepherd's Pie or roast beef & Yorkshire pudding and watch the sunset and pay top dollar prices for non-Turkish menus.

Yes Turkey is in an earthquake zone and yes many have died - the earlier quoted example from 1999 doesn't mention the Government introduced regulations that were implimented soon after which address specifically the ability of structures to withstand earthquakes.

Yes people get ripped off. People don't do their homework until after they bought then realise that all the information is out there. Companies like Assured Estate prevent the risk of handing over tens of thousands of pounds to someone you only met five minutes ago, by not handing over any money at all until the property is finished to specification and the title deed ready to be transferred into the buyers name. Still, people buy from a some of the many smooth talking barmen and waiters who promise to get the "real price" not the "English price". Guess which one is higher? The one where the waiter demanded £8,000 for bringing the client to the developer.

Yes, there is a pretty stagnant market, primarily due to over supply and falling demand, but quality always sells. Location, design, build quality. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of rubbish in Turkey if you want to invest in cheap rubbish. Pre-1999 properties sell at very attractive prices, they are pre-earthquake regulations. Believe me, if you sell something cheap enough, some fool will fall in love with it. Long term I believe it to be a decent investment if you do your homework and avoid the pitfalls (same for any country). There are good rental returns for the right properties too. Maybe you can't buy today for 60k and sell next week for 75k anymore over in Turkey, but I'll wager that if you spend 100k on property in Turkey, it'll be worth more than a 100k property in the UK in two years time, and you can enjoy it in the meantime.

Give Turkey a break!

What????????? £20 for a bottle of Bell's Whisky????!!!:eek: That's immensely expensive!!!!

A superb meal in a top quality restaurant for £3?????? Oh don't be ridiculous!!!! The very few top quality restauarants in Turkey are more expensive than some of those in England!! AND the wine's awful!!!

As for Turkish property, I heard it was hard to shift when people had lots of dosh splashing about, and reselling was nigh impossible, so goodness knows what it's like now - especially now that Turkey has a recession looming too!:o

I've heard that buying a property in Turkey is akin to buying a boat or a car - they always DEPRECIATE!:eek: