Breathtaking views on property in Turkey

John and Valerie Snell, both in their early 50s, stand breathless at the top of the road next to their five bedroom villa in Sarigerme, on the ancient Lycian coast in south west Turkey. They shouldn’t be out of breath after stepping out of an air conditioned four wheel drive, but looking down through the pine covered hills to the turquoise ocean below you understand why.

“We chose to build our villa in Sarigerme because it does this every time; the views literally take our breath away. Soon we’ll be spending nine months of the year here and we wanted a place that has that wow factor with natural beauty and plenty of open space.

“After coming to Dalyan for quite a few years we know the area well and love the sea framed by the mountains; it’s a complete contrast from our home in Kent. I sold my printing business and we decided we wanted to put down some roots here as we love this area of Turkey so much. We made the decision to buy a place, but it had to give us high quality at the right price.

“The issue for us was we didn’t want any pressure in buying a property. We know what we like and where we want to be so I had to find a route to choosing a home without people climbing all over our backs. After some digging I came across Propertyinturkey.com online and their Turkish partners Lycia Properties.

“I arranged our flights out to view some properties through Lycia. Kate Cinar, a Brit who runs Lycia with her Turkish husband Hakan, met us at the airport and showed us the area and some of their apartments. To cut a long story short we decided to buy somewhere, but I did go and look at some other places with another local developer. It was like comparing chalk with cheese and for just over £100,000 we bought a ready to go two-bed show apartment through Lycia in the Venus complex at Sarigerme. The build quality is outstanding, as are the fixtures and fittings,” said John.

This was a stepping stone for the Snells who are passionate about this part of Turkey and wanted to own a bigger place that could accommodate friends and family as well.
“The after-sales service for the apartment we experience is brilliant; nothing is a trouble to them, so much so we’ve become firm friends with Hakan and Kate. They have helped us to select two plots of land and start to build our dream home, a five bedroom villa complete with infinity pool. I have to say they have listened to everything we wanted , even to the point of us going against traditional Turkish designs for the villa to have something we felt was more broadly ‘Mediterranean’.

“Working with Lycia and their partners in Burnley means we have the best of both worlds with real expert local Turkish knowledge to handle everything from the purchase of two land plots that had to be joined to finding the best local deals on sun blinds and a car! This is matched with Kate and her English colleagues who fully understand all our expectations and how they can be matched and exceeded in Turkey

“The other real attraction of Turkey is that having travelled around Europe and elsewhere in the world we haven’t found anywhere that can match the combination of the friendliness of its people and low cost of living. We now confidently go off and explore other places in the country,” adds John.

What John forgot to mention is that despite all the beauty, peace and quiet the Snell’s villa has they will be a stone’s throw from the new 18 hole Links golf course that forms part of the Hilton Group’s new 5 star resort hotel in Sarigerme. He’s looking forward to playing some of his friends on his new ‘home’ course and beating them.

The Snell’s new villa is also a short 10 minute walk to Sarigerme’s town and long sandy beach, and just a 20 minute drive to Dalaman’s recently redeveloped international airport.
The five bedroom, five bathroom villa, with under-floor heating, swimming pool, electric shutters and gardens is a bargain, according to the Snells, when compared to buying land and building a place this special to your own specification in Greece, the South of France or Croatia!

Click here for more information about property in Turkey.