One of my friends has just given up his villa with an awesome view in Yalikavak and moved to a prettier, more private, no sea view house inland for a variety of very sensible reasons.
Funnily enough this is the fourth time in the last week the subject of the 2nd house you choose to live in in Turkey has come up, twice via email and twice in person, and it seems that most, if not all of us, make some serious errors of judgement in our initial choices of a home in the sun.
For those looking for a permanent home living here is very different to holidaying here and what suits for two weeks in July doesn’t suit for all year round living. And the things that people prioritised in the search for a holiday home can turn out to be major hassles that stop them enjoying their dream in the sun when the purchase is finally complete but they then have to spend every holiday rushing around working on maintenance and paperwork.
The biggest issues for people are around build quality and community living, closely followed by security, privacy and noise.
Because I’ve done this a few times I made most of my errors in other countries and those I made on my first build here were down to not realising what a massive temperature variance Turkey produced over the course of a year and how this affected the fabric of the building. I corrected those errors on my second build and that is why this is the kind of house you should buy in Turkey if you want to learn from other people’s mistakes which is always cheaper and quicker than learning from your own!
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise why Turks call houses on the beach Summer Houses – because come the last day of September they turn into fridges with mould in the middle of uninhabited ghost towns.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that having a shop within walking distance that is open all year round is quite useful when you run out bread/milk/icing sugar and in the deserted complexes you have to hike miles to a shop and run the gauntlet of a pack of ravening feral dogs which is great for the tone of your calf muscles but lousy for your blood pressure.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that whilst a sea view is lovely it normally means being on the side of a 1 in 2 slope that it is too hot to walk up in summer and becomes a raging, impassable torrent at the first sign of rain and is too steep to swim up, unless you are a very fit salmon.
This is the kind of house you buy when you feel your first earthquake tremor and look out of the window at the apartment blocks all around you and all you can think of are dominos toppling.
This is the kind of house you buy when things you never thought you needed to think about become important, things like insulation, dpc, more than one socket in a room, a water supply, silly little things like that.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that it’s going to take you three years to get rid of all the friends you made in your first year and who you now realise are all clinically insane and should be dribbling in a padded cell not knocking on your door at 3am saying their boyfriend/taxidriver/emlak tricked them out of their house/money/virginity (the last in unlikely). Moving somewhere that requires a little effort to get to is a good way of getting rid of them.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that living on a complex/sitesi/gated community means you are at the mercy socially/financially/literally of all the other people on the community most of whom are mad (see above), cannot organise the proverbial in a brewery, don’t want to organise their community anyway and all of whom hate each other. Your average community is more political than the House of Commons and twice as bitchy.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise the entire Turkish race is deaf and nocturnal and your neighbours who have moved here for the summer will keep you awake all night every night by having bbq’s on the terrace above/below/all around you at 3am whilst arguing loudly/watching TV outside/winding up small children/stamping around a lot and slamming doors.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that the large open spaces in your new villa which, flooded with light, so entranced you on your viewing trip mean you will freeze in winter because you can’t keep them warm, all your soft furnishings will rot in the summer sun and you will spend June/July and August running your air conditioner at full blast because it is like living in a green house. You will also weep when you realise just how much of your money is vanishing through the gaps in the badly fitted doors and windows!
This is the kind of house you buy when you learn that you should only buy that which exists and you can actually see and touch. You realise this when all the little luxury extras detailed in the glossy brochure for your off plan villa fail to materialise and the promises of a golf course/poolside bar/state of the art gym/four walls and a roof were just the builders little joke.
This is the kind of house you buy when you realise that whilst you thought a private pool would be too much hassle and so bought a place with shared use of an Olympic sized pool this actually means spending eight months of the year next to a stagnant green swamp swarming with mossies before paying the equivalent of the national debt of Nigeria to have access for four months of the year to a saffron coloured Olympic sized urine and chemical soup full of screaming kids.
I could go on and on (and normally do!), but essentially this is the kind of house you buy when you realise that consistency matters and consistency gives you the lifestyle you want and it was the lifestyle you moved here for. Living somewhere that is built properly, has all the boring infrastructure stuff like electricity and water and internet and paved roads in place and has facilities and population that remain consistent no matter the season allows you to enjoy the lifestyle you dreamt of without a whole heap of compromises.
Move the sea view and the beach front location from the top of your wish list for your villa in Turkey, move it down the list, prioritise the boring stuff and your lifestyle will bless you in the end.
If you are interested in owning an income generating property in a village in Turkey please see our house for sale here in Kirazli Koyu Character Stone House with Proven Rental Income for Sale
Turkey sounds a lot like Andalucia – perhaps more so!
You have explained so beautifully why it is taking us so long to find our home! Most agents actually want to sell us a holiday home, which is fine if that was what we were looking for!
So for now we think we might just rent a nice, quiet, Spanish house in a sensible location – where we have checked out the neighbours/parking arrangements/local shops/access to schools – and keep looking at our own pace for the right house to buy. (I still think it’s out there.)
Thanks for reminding me!
Ax
It is very much the same, and there is a house out there for you and the family and you’re going about it the right way. I keep an eye open for you whilst trawling websites for myself, I might see something you missed because you’re looking for the one special right place amongst thousands and thousands of totally unsuitable properties. It takes time and patience to trawl through the choices but you’ll find it. K xxxxx
agree 100%, beautifully said 🙂
There speaks the voice of experience, Karen. I really hope people are listening and learning.
Not a chance 🙂 And there speaks the voice of experience again! Hope you have a lovely easter xxx
Love it. A wonderful summary of the how the dream can become aa nightmare. The word should be spread far and wide. Had me chuckling into my morning coffee. We bought loads of ‘how to’ books before we left Blighty (Liam is very thorough) but not one of them mentioned the blindlingly obvious. Perhaps we should get together and write a book or publish a website that describes the real deal, not to put people off but to make sure people know what they’re getting into. Forewarned is forearmed!
Let’s do that, The Practical Pansy Guide on moving to Turkey – how to be permanently perky 🙂
We’re spoilt by the UK really, the utilities work, the houses work, the climate is generally benign if gloomy and the regulations cushion us. Out here the priorities are different and most people won’t realise until it’s too late that they have bought something you can’t actually live in you just sort of camp in it!
Let us discuss this idea further when you visit next month….. xxxxx
Fantastic piece!
You have just written the definitive pitfalls list for buying pretty much anywhere that gullible Brits fancy for their relocation. It is certainly a carbon copy of all things Spanish! I love it and will spread the word…albeit to the blinkered deaf.
Deb x
That was just warming up, I could have run on another few thousand words without even trying 🙂 Don’t even get me started on the legal stuff, I could bore for Britain on the legal issues around buying property on three continents! Nobody will listen though, just call me Cassandra. Love your blog by the way, I’ve just joined up. K xxx
Thanks, Karen! And I’m delighted to have come across your blog, too (via Jack´s site and his twitters).
I am astounded by the cross-border carbon copies of situations you are relating that I encounter here in perpetuum!
If you like the blog, ask Jack to pass on the book when you meet up – Liam should be finished with it by then.
Fantastic, they’ll be up in a week or so for a visit, I’ll ask them to bring it with them.
Beautifully stated and very much fits with our thoughts on making the move to Turkey.
A Turkish friend of ours says ‘You don’t buy a house, you buy your neighbours’.
I think that is very wise.
However, I’ve been thinking about this and, whilst I wouldn’t put a dramatic or wonderful view at the top of my wish list, I would like to be able to see more than a wall. I like to watch the sky and the storms. We have a view down to the canal here in our ex Local Authority flat in London. Yes, it’s mostly carpark and rough ground, but it has trees in it and birds and often foxes. I’d like to be able to see something at least as attractive when I retire.
I totally agree with you, and I actually like a lot of drama in my landscape and I have wonderful views of the mountains and the forests and the valley (and the neighbours goat shed!) from here. It is just some people seem totally obsessed with a sea view, even a bad sea view, and they will buy a place because you can see a square foot of blue between hundreds of other buildings and that is all they care about. Mind you I’m spoilt, I’ve spent my life beside one sea or another, maybe I would feel differently if I never saw the sea except on holidays.
Your Turkish friend is right, particularly here, and I am blessed with very nice neighbours. The neighbours brought me some green almonds yesterday, these are highly prized and are going for 5tl a punnet on Selcuk market, but like eriks (the sour unripe plums) I can’t stand them so I am grateful but looking for someone to pass them onto!