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THE IRISH TIMES, Thursday, June 14, 2007; Property Online: myhome.ie
OverseasProperty
BuyinginTurkey
Heading for the hills by the Aegean in Bodrum
It’s well-heeled, good value and
popular with Irish buyers:
Peter Murtagh visits the Bodrum
peninsula, and meets a young Turk
behind an upmarket villa development
Alpcan Yazici, below, one of developers of Aegean Hills, left, in Yalikavak, on the Bodrum peninsula. Villas there cost from around ¤232,000. Above: Aegean views
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sun) and stay for the low cost of
living, good restaurants
(especially by the waterside in
Gundogan and Yalikavak, and in
Bodrum town), and the
invariably warm welcome from
the locals.
And now the Irish are here in
numbers as well. “Some Irish
have bought investment land
near the airport,” my well
informed host discloses. Many of
the Irish who have bought in and
around Bodrum have been
attracted by the upmarket feel of
the place, compared to the more
raucous attractions of Kusadasi
further north.
“There are Irish here for sure,
some, not too many, but they’re
here,” says Alpcan Yazici, one
half of the Turkish side of a
UK-Turkey partnership,
Braemoregemini, a construction
and property management
enterprise that has begun to
make its mark in and around
Yalikavak.
Alpcan and his Turkish
business partner, Burak Ozkan,
are two young men (both are in
their early thirties) who typify
the modern 21st century face of
secular Turkey. They are proud
of their country and its culture
but, through long periods in
England and the US, they are also
familiar with western Europe
and North America and see
Turkey’s future – political and
economic – hitched to the wider
world.
Alpcan is a geologist and an
engineer by profession (he’s also
a published expert on
earthquakes and, usefully for
Turkey, how to make buildings
to survive them).
His family has been in
construction for 35 years. Burak
is also a civil engineer but he also
has an MBA and is more involved
in the financials.
Together with two Britons
from Nottingham, Oliver
Wheatcrott and Ben Walsgrove,
they are finishing off Aegean
Hills, a 32-unit development of
two-storey, semi-detached, three
and five-bed, villas with
breathtaking views out over the
Aegean just above Yalikavak.
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Bodrum isn’t quite hopping at
this time of year but there’s a
definite hum around the
peninsula. Summer has been
tiptoeing ever closer and round
about mid-June, it gets going
officially . . .
A paparazzo is patrolling
already among the beach-side
restaurants in Göltürkbükü on
the north shore of the peninsula.
He moves unhurried among the
bright young things from
Istanbul for whom this small
Aegean Sea bay is the summer
playground of choice.
The bodies lying on the
pontoons and diving platforms
stretching out into the sea, gently
flopping into the water every
now and then, don’t mind his
voyeurism.
In fact, several ask for their
photos to be taken. Paparazzo
obliges with a smile. Indeed if
paparazzo wasn’t there (and
soon he’ll be joined by several
more), Göltürkbükü would
doubtless lose some of its allure
for the families of the rich and
aspirant rich, minor and not so
minor celebrities down from
Turkey’s bustling, hectic
commercial capital to the north.
Long before the rest of us
heard about Bodrum, well-heeled
Turks were familiar with the
town and peninsula of the same
name. It’s near the bottom
left-hand corner of the country,
just opposite the Greek island of
Kos, which is accessible by ferry,
and only an hour or so by air
from Istanbul.
Pockets of Bodrum, the
peninsula as well as the town
(population circa 30,000), have a
tasteful, well-heeled feel about
them. There are villas dotted
about Göltürkbükü and other
nearby towns, Torba and
Yalikavak, for instance, that ooze
. . well, money.
For much of the past 20 years,
Bodrum has gained a wider
appreciation among northern
Europeans – the English (whom
one suspects were among the
first outside Turkey to “find” it),
the Dutch and Scandinavians.
They come for the exceptionally
long season (almost year round
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Early in the autumn, they will get
cracking on Aegean View, a
development further along the
coast of 38, two-bed apartments,
also with stunning views over
the Aegean.
At Aegean Hills, where over
20 villas have already been sold,
they are aiming firmly at the high
end of the market with prices
ranging from £157,500 to
£185,000 (circa ¤232,000 to circa
¤272,000). You can get property
in and around Bodrum for less
than that but you won’t find
much in this location for a lot
less and not of the quality, style
and level of service to which
Braemoregemini aspire.
Serious thought has been put
into the overall design of the
Aegean Hills villas and it shows.
They stand out from many
around them because of their
sleek minimalist modern
appearance. Particular design
features (sun blocking grills on
the patios, sliding doors inside,
clever use of all available storage
options, expensively and
stylishly kitted out bathrooms)
are noticeable. Floor-to-ceiling
plate glass patio doors, and glass
doors onto terraces at all levels,
means the barrier between inside
and outside is almost
non-existent. Someone involved
in designing this lot has been
influenced by the Japanese.
Each villa has 108sq m
© IRISH TIMES STUDIO
(1,163sq ft) of internal space, plus
50sq m (538sq ft) of external
terracing and balcony (some
villas have an extra terrace).
Each villa also has a modest
landscaped garden and there’s a
large communal area where an
infinity swimming pool and
separate toddler pool are being
built.
While the villas also each have
their own pools, some potential
buyers might be discouraged as,
although measuring 18sq m
(194sq ft), they are really only
plunge pools – great for cooling
down but not for the serious
swimmer.
There will also be a communal
tennis court, car-parking spaces,
gated entrance and security.
Owners will be able to tootle
around in golf buggies and, for
longer ventures, a shuttle bus
will operate to and from
Yalikavak and to the Xuma Beach
Club, where membership is on
offer at a discount to villa
owners.
White goods and kitchen units
are included in the purchase
price. There are two furniture
packs, one which includes beds,
blinds, curtains, sofa etc, for
£6,000 (circa ¤8,800), another
which has all of that plus TV,
dining table and chairs, and just
about anything else, for £15,000
(about ¤22,000).
Prices at Aegean View, where
apartments will be around
65sq m ( 700sq ft) in size and all
with sea views, are expected to
be in the £100,000–£120,000
bracket (about
¤147,000–¤176,000).
The showhouse will be ready
next spring and the entire
complex built by the spring of
2009. A euro mortgage tie up
with Dutch bank DHB is in the
pipeline.
General inflation in Turkey is
running at about 10 per cent per
annum. Property inflation is way
above that at anything up to
25 per cent.
Alpcan and Burak’s first big
venture in Yalikavak, a
residential complex in the centre
of the village overlooking the
new marina and market area,
finished last year with three-bed
villas selling for ¤350,000. They
go now for ¤400,000. After sales
service for Aegean Hills will
include a free concierge service
(owner hand-holding plus
“where-to-go, what-to-do”
advice) and it’s estimated that
property management fees when
the complex is finished will be
£80 to £100 (about ¤118–¤149) a
month.
❑ braemoregemini
www.braemoregemini.com
❑ Getting there: several charters
fly Bodrum direct from Dublin and
Belfast from May to October. Year
round, Turkish Airlines flies daily to
Dublin/Istanbul, with frequent
connecting flights to Bodrum
InvestinginBelgium
Apartments from ¤172,000 in heart of EU quarter in Brussels
Fiona Tyrrell
Leopold Village, Brussels: apartments from ¤172,000 with
high-spec interiors which will include Smeg kitchens, right
It’s one of the cheaper European
capitals to buy in and boasts a
very stable market, so at a time
when Irish investors are looking
for low-risk ventures, it’s no surprise that Brussels is now being
eyed up.
The property market in Brussels has long benefited from the
city’s position as the administrative centre of the European
Union. In the last two years the
EU enlargement project has in particular encouraged new players to
get in on the game and the Irish
are to the forefront.
The office market was the first
to experience a surge of interest
from investors. Earlier this year
Bank of Ireland Private described
Brussels as an inherently stable
market. Three years ago the company bought a landmark office
tower, the IT Tower, in the
upmarket Louise area of the city
for ¤72 million. Across the road is
another office building owned by
IIB.
Interest in the residential
market is now taking off. Property
prices in the Belgian capital have
risen by about 12 to 15 per cent in
the last four years. Prior to that
growth was at about 6 per cent.
Residential property is currently priced at around ¤2,000 to
¤2,500 per sq m (¤21,527-¤26,909
per sq ft) with property in the
more exclusive districts at ¤3,500
to ¤4,500 per sq m (¤37,673 to
¤48,438 per sq ft). The south of
the city, boasting many green
areas, the embassy district and
the EU zone, is the most expensive area.
Rental income in the city varies
considerably depending on the
area and even significantly within
areas. Yields for new builds are at
around 5–6 per cent. Most investors buy for long-term gain.
Residential purchases in Belgium are subject to a 12.5 per cent
stamp duty tax on land and 21 per
cent Vat on building, working out
at about 20 per cent of the total
purchase price. Estate agency fees
are around 3 per cent and notary
fees are 0.2–0.4 per cent.
Irish developer Thornsett is
selling 108 apartments in a new
development, Leopold Village, at
an enviable location in the heart
of the EU quarter in Brussels. The
scheme was launched last week
by EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy at an offsite marketing suite and show
apartment, a first for Brussels.
Apartment prices at Leopold
Village will begin at ¤172,000 plus
taxes for a 39sq m (420sq ft) apartment with terrace and rise to
¤1.1 million plus taxes for a threestorey four-bedroom penthouse
with 200sq m (2,153sq ft) and a
50sq m (538sq ft) terrace.
The development on Rue Belliard overlooks Park Leopold, is
equidistant from the European
Commission and the European
Parliamentand right beside both
the Council of Ministers’ building
and the building that is home to
the Irish delegation to the EU.
The first 40 apartments at the
¤80 million scheme are for sale
through the developer. Completions are due in early 2009.
Europe’s first Aloft hotel will
also form part of the scheme: the
design for Starwood Hotels’ new
Aloft chain was tested on potential customers in virtual world
Second Life. The trendy, urbanthemed hotel will have 150 bedrooms.
The Thornsett group has five
sites under development in Brussels. Thornsett’s Irish and Belgian
operation is headed up by Dubliner Peter McCarthy while its
UK operation is controlled by
Longford brothers Denis and
Gerard Cunningham.
Earlier this month Thornsett
launched its first Brussels
scheme, Boniface Square, a boutique development of 28 apartments in the city centre Ixelles district.
Belgian
architect
Pierre
Blondel designed the striking
building and London-based
Stefan Tollard is responsible for
the interior design.
BuyingInNewYork
Serviced suites in The
Plaza by Central Park
Fiona Tyrrell
Alfred G Vanderbilt was the first
guest to check in and Judy Garland
made it her home for a while, but now
for a mere ¤1.2 million you can buy a
slice of the Big Apple’s most famous
hotel.
One of New York’s most cherished
landmarks, the Plaza Hotel, is currently undergoing a mammoth
¤263 million ($350 million) facelift.
Sitting on the corner of Fifth
Avenue and Central Park, the
19-storey French château-style
building was purchased by Israeli
developer Elad Properties in August
2004 for ¤507 million ($675 million).
When it reopens on October 1st,
2007, exactly 100 years after it first
opened its doors to the public, the
800-room hotel will be transformed
into a smaller 280-bedroom hotel
with an adjoining 180 private residences.
These private candos were
released on the market last year. Now
152 serviced rooms are for sale.
These range from from 46sq m
(500sq ft) studios to 186sq m
(2,000sq ft) penthouses. Prices are
from ¤1.2 million ($1.6 million) to
¤6.7 million ($9 million).
Old-world service is promised
with a butler assigned to every floor.
Furnishing and fit-out promises to be
ornate – the bathroom fixtures will be
24 carat gold.
Owners can stay at their condominiums for up to 120 days a year. The
unit can then be released to the hotel
for rent on a nightly basis or rented
out by owners themselves.
Jason Higgs from Luxury Hotel
Homes, the Irish and UK selling
agent for The Plaza, said investors
can expect a yield of 7.26 per cent.
The Plaza has been the setting for
numerous movies, including The
Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Truman Capote threw his legendary Black and White Ball there at
the hotel and F Scott Fitzgerald went
for a dip fully clothed into the fountain.
Luxury Hotel Homes 023 31695
The Plaza Hotel, New York: 152 serviced rooms for sale from
¤1.2 million to ¤6.7 million