Turkish property market information
 Turkey is becoming more popular year
on year. Flying to Turkey has been
revolutionised by the arrival of budget airlines, so wherever the house
of your choice is located, it will be readily accessible. According
to figures from the Turkish Statistics Board (TUIK), a record-breaking
21.1 million foreign tourists visited Turkey in 2005 – an increase
of 20.4 per cent from the previous year, which was the most successful
on record at that time. By far the largest proportion of visitors came
from Europe, in particular Germany (the country of origin for 16.2 per
cent of visitors) and neighbouring Bulgaria (14.2 per cent).
 Last year’s outstanding results were the continuation of a process
which has been ongoing for several decades as Turkey has sought to increase
its share of the lucrative international tourism market. According to
figures released by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the number
of foreign tourists visiting Turkey has increased 15-fold in the last
quarter-century, with the figure of 1.2 million foreign arrivals in 1980
now dwarfed by 2005’s figures. A study presented at the last general
assembly of UNWTO predicts that the number of international visitors
to the country will increase by approximately ten per cent per annum
for the next decade, making it one of the best-performing countries in
the world in tourism terms.
 The increase in the number of foreign arrivals is thanks in no small
part to the promotional efforts of the Turkish government, which has
been aggressively marketing Turkey as a holiday destination for some
time. Official sources state that this year the government will be spending
over £22.7 million on promotion in more than 70 countries worldwide;
while the traditional sources of tourist revenue (ie Europe) will continue
to be targeted, the government will increase its spending in potentially
lucrative growth markets such as China (the ‘special focus’ of
the year’s marketing plan, with spending in China increasing by
50 per cent), Japan and Korea.
 Turkey is also looking to expand upon its traditional summer-tourism
appeal with the development of new out-of-season incentives to visitors,
including thermal tourism (see related article) and archaeological tourism.
Turkey has one of the world’s richest cultural heritages, and sites
of historic interest are becoming of increasing value as tourist destinations
in their own right. Typically, visitors to Turkey spend time in coastal
resorts and the former capital Istanbul; opening up new tourism sites
in the country’s interior will have a significant effect on the
economic development of these areas – with positive knock-on effects
for the country’s burgeoning property market.
Similarly, the expansion of the tourist season from what is now predominantly
a summer market should lead to much greater returns for property owners
looking to let out their homes. While returns on coastal villas and apartments
have been very respectable, under current market conditions they tend
to be garnered during a relatively limited period during the summer months.
The government’s efforts to promote out-of-season tourism can only
be good news for homeowners – especially those who have bought
in coastal locations near sites of special archaeological or historic
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Heating up the tourist market
 A new initiative by the Turkish government could soon be bringing billions
of extra euros into the country’s already burgeoning tourism
coffers – by tapping into a resource lying directly under the
feet of visitors to Turkey. The Thermal Tourism Cities Project (TTCP)
launched in January by Turkey’s culture and tourism ministry
aims to establish the country as one of the world’s leading thermal
tourism destinations, unlocking an estimated £8 billion-worth
of potential revenue, according to the Turkish Geothermal Association
(TGA).
Thermal tourism – a major and profitable market sector internationally – is
an industry based on the apparent curative and cosmetic powers of thermal
springs. For millennia people with any of a vast range of ailments, from
arthritis and neuritis via burns and sprains to insomnia and depression,
have visited thermal springs around the world in an attempt to gain relief
from their suffering, usually by bathing in the warm and frequently chemically
active waters or mud issuing from vents in the earth. Famous thermal
sites in the UK include Bath, known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, which
still generates a solid tourism income from its famous springs.
According to the TGA, Turkey has the world’s seventh-largest (and
Europe’s largest) thermal resources with over 1,300 sites of thermal
interest across the country. Despite this abundance of thermal riches,
however, the Turkish thermal tourism market is near-virgin territory:
only 10,000 foreign tourists visited Turkish thermal sites in 2005, compared
with the nearly 12 million visitors who made the trip to the Japanese
spa city of Beppu last year alone. The TGA estimates that the country’s
thermal resources could cater for over 30 million visitors annually,
a large proportion of which would come from outside Turkey.
“The thermal waters of Turkey – among the top seven countries
in terms of the wealth of this resource – are better than those
of Europe because of the flow and heat of the Turkish waters, as well
as their various physical and chemical features,” said TGA president
Orhan Mertoglu.
The TTCP has divided the country into various regions according to their
thermal potential, with four main areas being accorded top priority:
central Anatolia; southern Marmara; Phrygia; and the southern Aegean,
including Izmir, Manisa, Aydin and Denizli. These areas will receive
extra government funding both to develop thermal sites and to promote
new and existing facilities at home and abroad.
Commercial interest in Turkey’s thermal potential has already
made itself known in the form of a £25.6-million investment by
French and Turkish firms and governmental bodies into the city of Denizli,
some 200 kilometres north of Dalaman. The Pamukkale Thermal Cure Centre,
due to be completed in approximately seven years, will eventually be
able to handle some 1,500 visitors per day, according to the minister
for tourism, Attila Koc.
The potential impact of the TTCP on Turkey’s blossoming property
market is significant, according to many analysts. The growth of international
tourism into Turkey has played a substantial role in driving forwards
the country’s current property boom, and the millions of extra
visitors who could result from the success of the TTCP could both solidify
the existing market and open up new areas.
“If you look at Turkey’s property market right now, it is
overwhelmingly coastal in nature,” said regional property expert
Pik Greune. “The vast interior is a markedly untapped resource
and prices tend to be significantly lower than on the coast. However,
this could change if the thermal initiative is successful: the flow of
millions of visitors into the interior would create a whole new tourism
industry and property values around the main thermal sites, receiving
thousands of visitors annually, could skyrocket.
“Not only do you have investment issues such as rental returns
to consider,” he continued, “you also have the wider possibility
of establishing retirement or residential health complexes which have
proved very profitable elsewhere in Europe. This could be the beginning
of a very interesting and lucrative shift in an already dynamic market.”
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