Cesme Property

The Aegean city of İzmir's Çeşme district, which is a popular holiday resort, has never lost its value, said Levent Okudan, who has been an effective player in the real estate sector for the past 14 years.

“Çeşme is as valuable as a diamond. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's purchase of Çiftlikköy Kum Beach also helped increase the town's popularity,” said Okudan, adding, “There also is a talk of Mustafa Koç (a prominent Turkish businessman) purchasing a large property for tourism-related investments.”

Çeşme and Alaçatı will be undisputable stars of tourism within the next 10 years, claimed Okudan. He said he envisions houses similar to those in Majorca, which will include pools and a helicopter pad, adding that such works need to be implemented in order for Turkey to compete in tourism with Greece and Italy.

“Primarily, we need to expand the tourism season in Çeşme to 12 months. In order to do that we need to implement golf tourism. Secondly, although we own the best thermal resources in the world, we currently are unable to benefit from those. We need better promotion for the world to get to know us,” Okudan said.

“The government and the municipalities need to invest in high quality hotels and increase VIP tourism in those locations,” he said, adding, “Another way to improve tourism in the district is to establish a private airport for small planes and helicopters to serve businessmen and especially foreign multimillionaires. We need to prioritize infrastructure."