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On-going development plans for Dalaman are slowly transforming a hitherto unsung part of the country, reports Dominic Whiting, editor of the Buying in Turkey guide, www.buyinginguides.info

When David Mansfield saw the view from the half-built concrete shell on a mountainside in Akkaya near the Turkish town of Dalaman, his mind was instantly made up.

“There was no contest with the other properties I had seen – the setting was spectacular. I did give myself a few hours to think before paying the reservation fee though,” says Mansfield, an insurance broker from Battersea in London.

He had initially looked at property in Altinkum and Bodrum but found the resorts too commecialised . “Altinkum in particular was like a little England by the sea.

Then a friend introduced me to a developer in Dalaman.”

One of five ‘Tourism Development Regions’ at the centre of the Turkish government’s ambitious plans to increase tourist numbers by almost 50% to 30 million visitors a year by 2010, Dalaman has attracted increasing attention from international investors. A golf course is due for completion in 2008 at Sarigerme, 12 km south of the town, with up to six more courses, along with 70,000 new hotel beds and a marina envisaged by the government master plan. A new road tunnel on the main coastal highway opened last year bringing the upmarket yachting centre of Gocek within 10 minutes drive. Dalaman airport, the country’s third busiest and the gateway for package tourists heading to resorts along Turkey’s south west coast, also has a new $150 million international  terminal.

However, despite the grand plans, Dalaman remains a down-to-earth Turkish market town. Many locals still drive tractors and although it won’t win any prizes for civic architecture, the main street is bustling year-round. The area’s unspoilt countryside and beaches, along with property values significantly lower than the main Turkish holiday centres and the promise of sustained price increases as the local development plans unfold, have attracted a growing number of foreign, mainly British, buyers in recent years.

“The airport is so close, there is lots to do and we like the fact that the area isn’t so touristy, though it won’t be to everyone’s taste,” says Jane Trent, a secondary school behaviour co-ordinator from Chichester. She bought a three-bedroom apartment 10 minutes walk from the centre of town with her parents, Wendy and Fred, for £54,000 in 2006. “It is an up-and-coming area but we are planning for the long-term and have just bought a villa  nearby where my parents will retire next year.”

Fifteen minutes drive from the town centre at the end of a rocky track, Akkaya sits on a pine-forested mountainside overlooking a jade green lake. The setting is secluded and peaceful, with only the sound of cicadas filling the warm air.

“This land has been in our family for generations,” explains Kemal Ilhan, director of Curbanoglu, the company behind the development of Akkaya. “It has been my father’s dream for many years to create a year-round holiday and residential community here.”

Established in 1980 to build villas for pioneering German buyers, Curbanoglu has grown into one of Dalaman’s largest developers with over 1,600 completed properties – built mainly for the British market in the last 8 years. Akkaya is their most ambitious project yet, with six separate developments, including a newly released complex of 33 two-bedroom apartments, Akkaya Garden, and over a dozen bespoke villas dotting the mountainside. A restaurant and bar occupying shady wooden platforms and terraces beside a rushing stream will open in October, and will be joined by shops, a communal pool, tennis courts and an on-site doctor next year.

“We want Akkaya to keep its atmosphere and natural beauty but to have all the facilities required by its residents. Zoning laws limit building to 15% of the area and the surrounding mountains are state-owned forestland, making over-development impossible,” explains Ihan.

Akkaya has clearly worked its magic on Mansfield. He plans to use his property, a three-bedroom villa with private pool, which cost him £159,000, for several holidays each year. A keen sailor, he has bought himself a boat, which is moored in Gocek. He has also bought a second villa in Akkaya– a three-bedroom semi-detached house on the Lakeside Villas complex, due for completion this winter.

“I’ve bought it to let out and as an investment,” comments Mansfield. “I have fallen in love with the area, but the development plans are very exciting too.”

Useful Contacts

For details about property in Akkaya  and Dalaman contact Curbanoglu, Tel: 0845 355 5625, www.curbanoglu.co.uk

Dominic Whiting is the editor of the Buying in Turkey property guide, buy online at www.buyinginguides.info or Amazon.co.uk. For a free consultation with a Buying In Turkey property adviser call Tel: 0845 351 3551, or visit www.buyingin.co.uk