This is yet another clear sign that the Turkish economy is clearly entering recovery, and that its recovery is going to be among the strongest in the world.

Another clear sign of this was in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement that talks with the International Monetary Fund to agree a standby agreement for Turkey, have been ended because of severe differences over what Turkey need do to meet the IMF’s strict regulations. The last standby agreement ended last May, and since then talks have been pretty much stalemated.

A further sign still comes from the massive $200 million investment in 8 Turkish businesses by 3 private equity funds, one from the US and 2 from Europe. The deals have been brokered by Investco’s Verusa Venture Capital. According to Investco chairman Mustafa Ünal the funds have invested with a long-term view based on great hopes for Turkey in the coming years.

With Turkish property values currently some of the lowest in the Euro area, and such potential for economic growth in the short, medium and long term, one can see why investment in Turkish property is currently being recommended by those in the know.

Gocek is a quaint village on said Aegean coastline, and to say it wasn’t going to factor massively in this growth in the coming years would be an outright lie.

The main reasons for the growth in tourism to Turkey’s Aegean coast are beauty, climate, diversity and value for money. Each town has a different history, a different story, a slightly different culture, and different things to keep people coming back every year. They all share the same gorgeous coastline, the same temperate climate, and the same friendly people. On top of that prices in Turkey’s Aegean coastal areas are among the lowest of all those that share access to the Aegean sea.

Gocek is known as one of the quieter towns, despite having all the amenities and infrastructure expected in a modern touristic area. This makes it very popular with families and older couples. On top of that Gocek has 4 marinas, which makes it a favourite with yachting tourists.

Gocek has been a Registered Area of Special Protection since 1988. This means that multi-storey buildings are not allowed. Understandably this makes Gocek property tremendously popular with foreign investors and lifestyle buyers.

It makes Gocek property popular with lifestyle buyers because it adds to the inherent beauty of the place; a place to step back in time to when you could still see the sky all around you in the town centre. And it makes Gocek popular with investors, obviously because the town’s protected status protects it from over-development, which will mean that demand will eventually outstrip supply by some margin, causing price solidification and growth – could it be the French Riviera of the future? Who knows?

Spot Blue are currently marketing some exceptional properties for sale in Gocek, including:

Exceptionally gorgeous 2 bedroom villas by the marina priced from £523,151. The villas are truly luxurious with 2 bathrooms fitted kitchens and all mod-cons. The development has communal gardens with a communal swimming pool, off-street parking, private moorings, and of course an exceptional location within walking distance of the beach, various dining options and just 30 minutes from the airport — I’m sold. A glorious detached 4 bedroom 3 bathroom villa in the same development is priced at £1,218,969.

Spot Blue are also fortunate enough to be marketing some top quality 2 bedroom beach-front apartments at the off plan price of £314,531. Again the apartments benefit from communal gardens and swimming pools, and are walking distance from the beach, 30 minutes from the airport. Gocek is a holiday hideaway, a short-car ride from the airport and you can really relax.

Turkish property is most definitely one of the most talked about markets in the industry press at the moment.

It is little wonder; we have written several times about the fantastic value for money afforded by Turkish properties, because of the low prices mixed with high-quality and a large (and thriving) off plan sector.

Then you have the fact that tourism suffered only a slight set-back in 2009 (after bringing over 28million visitors in 2008) and if the wide range of new flights are anything to go by 2010 looks like being a good year for Turkish tourism. The fact that Antalya received record numbers of visitors in January and February also supports this theory. According to reports this combination is leading to rental yields of 6% on Turkish holiday villas.

Speaking of new flights to Turkey, the increasing accessibility is a strength behind buying Turkish property in itself; during the last 18 months many flights have been reduced and even cancelled, and as a result potential property investors and buyers have been advised to research how accessible their chosen region is and could be in the future before shelling out.

Turkey has no fears in this respect. There have been no flights to Turkey cancelled that we have heard of, and many flights added, as you can see from our flights section on this blog. We are currently marketing property in Turkey at prices starting from £25k, why not take a look and see what all the fuss is about.

Some 311,995 tourists came to Antalya by plane during January and February, said Antalya Culture and Tourism Director İbrahim Acar.

February was the biggest month with 171,976, and 25,253 arriving through the international terminal at Antalya airport  in one weekend alone (Feb 26-28). 140,019 visitors were recorded for January.

“During the first two months of last year, 253,788 tourists came to Antalya by air. Our aim was to strengthen tourism in winter this year,” said Acar. “The promotion activities conducted by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, particularly for November and December, but also January and February, have started to bear fruit. This year will be quite good in terms of tourism.”

The promotion activities will be ongoing at promotion fairs in Berlin, Moscow and Kiev, he said.

Even the biggest bear will have to admit that these are truly awesome visitors numbers for low season months like January and February.  Whereas it was previously thought to be Dalaman, Antalya is now thought to be Turkey’s fastest growing region in terms of tourism. This tends to be followed by rapid growth in sales of property to foreign buyers.

Antalya property offers fantastic value for money, with Antalya apartments available from as little as £32k.

Don’t get me wrong, Icmeler is a very popular tourist resort, but Icmeler villas have been becoming popular at a disproportionate rate to tourism growth, and therein lies the surprise.

While it is a surprise, the popularity of Icmeler villas is not inexplicable; Icmeler is one of the least developed regions in Turkey, and is famed for its peace and quiet. In fact it has become known as the quieter alternative to the rather more developed Marmaris.

The type of tourists who seek this peace and quiet tend to be the more mature traveller, and or those travelling with their families. It just so happens that those two types of tourists tend to be the ones who can afford to buy a villa in their favourite holiday destination.

Not that it is a particularly expensive place; you can currently buy an Icmeler Villa from as little as £272k. That buys you a luxury 3 bedroom villa with air conditioning and a communal pool, within walking distance of the beach, and 90 minutes from the airport. That is surely an incredible deal, but with the rising popularity of villas in Icmeler it probably won’t be around for very long.

To be precise sales of homes in eastern and south eastern Turkey increased by 25.6% on a quarterly basis in the fourth quarter of last year. This can clearly be seen as well above the national average growth, which, as was mentioned was a still-impressive 3.9%.

The provinces of Mardin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt led the way in the last quarter of the year by increasing the number of homes sold by 7.7 percent or 334 homes.

İstanbul, considered to be the lifeline of the Turkish economy, gained an extra 2,358 homes in the fourth quarter, a quarterly growth of 10.3 percent.

The fact that these provinces are all inland indicates that the sales are primarily to Turkish residents. This, therefore is clearly an indication of the improving local economy in the region, based on industries other than tourism, which is obviously a good thing for the Turkish economy as a whole.

Apart from that, there were several towns near the coast in the north west of the country noted as among the fastest rising, at the top of the list: Kocaeli, Bolu.

It is also worth noting, that, according to Turkstat the second quarter of 2009 saw a massive spike in Turkish home sales, with 194,743 home selling during the period. The 4th quarters rise brought the quarterly total to 116,229, which, with the exception of Q2 is higher than at any point since 2007.

The number of mortgages also increased in the third quarter of the year, rising 65% year-on-year to 96,808 loans with a total value of TRY6 billion.

In a statement GYODER cautioned that weakening supply on the back of last year’s massive 19% contraction in the construction industry (two and a half times the economic contraction), would stunt growth this year. GYODER’s chairman, Turgay Tanes, at a press conference.

“The contraction in 2009 is expected to leave in its place limited growth in 2010,” he said.

That being said: it is a well known fact that weak supply can have a positive effect on prices, as has been seen in the UK housing market since April last year. Tanes also predicted a “slight increase” in foreign investment into the country next year, rising to a total of $10-12 billion.

“The real revival in the sector will take place in 2012,” said Tanes.

“With an increasing population and advancing urbanization, the need for housing will rise.”

According to recent data some 80% of the 67,000+ tourists received by Altinkum last year were British. As we all know, a place which is popular with British tourists can see masses of property sold to British buyers. There is absolutely no reason why Altinkum shouldn’t follow this pattern, and a whole host of reasons why it should.

Altinkum Property Offers High Quality at a Low Price – Exceptional Value

Many of you will already know that Altinkum property is among the cheapest in Turkey, which in itself is among the cheapest in the developing/developed world. But the low prices are not an indication of the quality when it comes to Altinkum. A luxury 1 bedroom apartment just 15 minutes from the sea is currently available for as little as £31k.

Altinkum is an Upcoming Tourist Destination

Altinkum is one of the fastest rising tourism destinations not only in Turkey, but the world. It has benefited hugely from the euro strengthening, which made Turkey an affordable alternative to Spain’s core package market.

The authorities have been keen to capitalise on the package market, but they have also been keen to attract a higher class of tourism through things like the Altinkum Marina

This all points to Altinkum becoming a huge favourite with overseas property buyers, because it offers an exceptional holiday home destination, with incredible investment potential at the same time.

View Altinkum property for sale with Spot Blue now>>>

I have read that the ultimate aim of this is to up Turkey’s share of the market from its current 5% to 10%, and while this is true it is also part of another, larger aim: the Turkish tourism governance is currently trying to up its game; to attract a higher class of tourist, now that growth in the low-budget package segment is practically taking care of itself.

If there is one thing you know about yacht owners it is that they aren’t short-of-a-bob-or-two and definitely come under the heading of a higher class of tourist.

However, the articles I have read on this subject have suggested that Turkey’s being outside the euro-zone — which has already boosted tourism growth and numerous other things – would help it to become a top destination for yachting tourism. But this is a bit of a contradiction in terms.

We need to focus on what can really help Turkey become one of the top yachting tourism destinations, which is the same thing that helped and is helping it become one of the top mainstream tourism destinations, and that is the beauty of the countryside, the cleanliness of the beach and warm ocean waters on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, and the friendliness of the people – being a cheap destination can only get you so far, and Turkey has already come so much farther than that point.

Find out more about Turkish tourism with Spot Blue.

This is just the latest in a long line of reasons why more and more property investors are turning to Turkey in the hope of increasing the returns from their portfolio.

Professional investors are currently favouring Istanbul, where demand for commercial spaces is far out-stripping supply, and where there is also thought to be significant opportunities in the residential sector according to a recent report by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Private investors are not so focussed on Istanbul, though it is high up the list of favourites – especially with it being European capital of culture for this year.

It is a hard choice though; the demand for holiday accommodation is growing far more quickly than supply in many of the tourism hotspots, according to recent research by Holiday Lettings.

If someone is looking for a Turkish property as an investment, but one that they will also want to enjoy at least some of their own holidays in then the choice is even harder, because they have to factor in their own desires for a holiday location, as well as that of their family members.

Spot Blue has among the largest variety of Turkish investment property, most of which will make excellent holiday homes as well. The best thing about Spot Blue is that they perform real checks on all developers who’s property they market, so buyers can choose property based on the property’s benefits, without having to factor in the safety or potential lack thereof, of the purchase.

View property for sale in Turkey with Spot Blue now>>>