Buying an Off-Plan Property

It is of course possible to buy your Turkish property complete and ready to move into. However, a much more economical and cost effective way of buying property is to buy off-plan. This means that you buy the property from the developer before it is completed, or even, before it is started.

I thought that the easiest way to illustrate what is involved with buying an off-plan property, would be to illustrate with an example shown on this web-site, Kamelya Villa. i.e. a property purchased by a friend.

If you are in right at the beginning of a project, in this case, the Hillside Gardens Development, what you will see first of all are plans and a piece of ground. It may perhaps have been marked up into plots, but don't be deterred by the fact that you are looking at a building site.

What you must remember is that you are going to go from this to this. These two phots are taken from almost exactly the same spot, just about two years apart.

A lot of what you will want is common sense. You will have a good idea of whether you want a villa or an apartment? Two bedrooms or four? Do you want a private pool or will you be happy to use the on-site communal pools? Do you want the beach on your doorstep or are you happy to take a short walk.

Some things however are perhaps not so obvious, especially if you want a property that you can rent out and make some income from. For example, there are plenty of TV programs around telling you about how you can buy a villa for £30,000, do it up yourself and then bingo! Dream villa on a budget.

However, if you want a reliable income from your property, then you need to have links with the big marketing companies, the airlines, the holiday firms. It is unlikely that you will get that if you have some lovely but isolated old farm at the end of a cart-track.

For this you are really better thinking about one of the self-contained developments: Hillside Gardens was a good example (now completed; there are more current developments). There is everything on-site: restaurant, supermarket, pools, gym, laundry facilities. This means that for those holiday makers who simply want to lie in the sun by the pool, if they wish, they never even leave the site. Everything is there fore them. Of course, they are perfectly free to go out of the site if they wish to see the local sights, eat at the restaurants, take the gulets (local boats) out to the islands, but they don't need to.

This makes a site very desirable to the travel companies. And since it is very easy for them to organise airport transfers, bulk holiday bookings etc, you have a much much better chance of having your Turkish property fully rented out, thus obtaining the maximum income for yourself.

In short, although such a property may cost more than you will see the "Do it Yourself" TV programs advertising, you have a much more desirable and usable property and a much better investment for your money.

Pick your Plot Carefully

As the estate agents say, only three things sell a property, "Postion, Position and Position". so when you are faced with a piece of scrub covered land and a set of plans, pick your plot carefully.

Here's the plot for Hillside Gardens

The top of the hill is at the top of the drawing.

The view of the sea is about where this sentence is written

Kamelya Villas are at the front looking out over the sea to the Island of Kos. This is the view from the roof terrace.

So choose your plot carefully. You might want a beautiful view. You may want to be right next to the pool for the kids, or easy access from the road for Grandma who isn't too good on her pegs. You know what you want. If you buy off-plan you have the best possible chance to get it right, right at the start.

A good developer will give you progress reports and photographs on your property as it progresses. you can see your investment go from building site to dream in easy stages.

Here's a few examples for Kamelya Villa/Hillside Gardens in its development stages: