A Place in the Sun

Hot Properties in Kalkan

 

Property in Kalkan

If there’s a place in Turkey where you’ll find more well-heeled Britons than anywhere else it’s probably the small resort of Kalkan near Fethiye. It’s not the most obviously glitzy place on that vast Turkish Riviera – that tag would go to Bodrum – and it’s not the most affordable by a long straw. No, it seems to be a combination of natural beauty, the fact that it is too far from an airport to attract the package tours (90 mins), and plentiful high-standard restaurants that don’t seen to have destroyed the feel of a small, friendly town. Kalkan devotees like the fact it is not as commercialized like Bodrum or Fethiye.

On a piece of coastline where there are few other resorts - apart from next-door Kas – between Fethiye and Antalya, you certainly don’t just pass through this town by accident, and it is arranged, like an amphitheatre, around a crescent bay set below the D-400 highway. The Old Town grew up around a little harbour and then people began to build houses up the hill and fringing the bay in both directions.

Despite the fact there are no decent beaches in Kalkan - there are some stunning ones if you hop in a car (Kaputas and Patara) - the British started buying homes there fifteen years ago.

Because land prices have gone up in Kalkan, the price of new properties has hardly dropped, although there are definitely deals to be had amongst older properties.

If you want a new-build, a handful of developers have been raising the bar when it comes to high-end villas, producing “Kalkan style” contemporary properties in big demand when it comes to holiday rentals.

With the bulk of Kalkan’s tourists preferring to stay in a villa than a hotel, gross yields of above 10 per cent not unusual in well-located, good-quality, skillfully marketed villas (but 4-6 per cent is more typical). The town thus attracts investors as well as lifestyle buyers but where are its best areas?