Turkey’s New Gazipasa Alanya Airport Set to Open August 2008

In the world of overseas property few things have such a major impact on market forces as a new airport and Alanya is one of the lucky ones. Back when Ryanair and Easyjet were barely out of nappies, the impact of new flight routes into obscure provincial airports throughout France, Italy and Spain has made a huge impact on property prices and regional tourism and who today can potentially make or break a new destination. An announcement last week by Tepe Akfen Airport Holding (TAV) that it won a 25 year lease to operate the small Gazipasa Airport in Alanya on Turkey’s Mediterranean Coast which should drastically improve current 2-3 hour airport travel times to the region.

TAV which manage the international airports of Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara have already started construction to incorporate necessary runway changes in order to increase airport capacity to 3 million passengers annually.

The new Alanya-Gazipasa International airport is widely expected to have a huge impact on tourism and the real estate sector throughout the Antalya province both from a residential and commercial perspective attracting not only Europeans in search of a holiday destination but also Turks from Istanbul and Ankara seeking a city weekend getaway not to mention the jobs the new airport will provide boosting the local economy. Since the announcement property prices in Alanya are already on the up and local agents are predicting price rises of between 20-50% over the next 2 years bringing the area in line with neighbouring Bodrum and Fethiye with the nearest course some hours away in Belek.

UK newspaper, The Telegraph last week, described the announcement of a new airport airport being built near Alanya as “good news” for British investors and holiday home buyers. Already on the back of the news has encouraged further investment with a UK and Irish consortium committing funds of 100 million euros to develop a new golf resort. Along with five star hotels and residential complexes planned there is also a new taxi boat service to connect Gazipaşa with Kaş and Kalkan and is also bound to lead to increased numbers of visitors to the region.

On the back of Turkey’s newly acquired status as a high-growth market, The Turkish Daily News recently stated that investment in the country’s real estate was becoming a “hot new trend” among overseas property investors seeking higher yields than currently offered by more established markets. The newspaper believes foreign investments in Turkish real estate, on a national scale were likely to increase from £896 million to more than £1 billion and over the coming decade more than 7 million new properties could be built across the whole Turkey.

The new Alanya-Gazipasa International airport is sure to have a positive impact on housing in Alanya and should bring more competition to the market for cheap flights to Turkey.