Antalya, land of the A- listers where you can still pick up a flat for £35,000 - Daily Mail 19th May 2009

Daily Mail 19th May 2009

How a tycoon created a property boom in Turkey's budget resort.

On Saturday, one of the gaudiest and glitziest parties of the year will be staged in what was once the budget Turkish resort of Antalya.
Mariah Carey and Tom Jones will be performing - and Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, Paris Hilton and Monica Bellucci are on the guest list - for the opening of the £1billion 560-room Mardan Palace hotel.
Built by Azerbaijani billionaire Telman Ismailov, chairman of Russia's biggest property developers AST, the opening will highlight one of the few major tourist destinations still experiencing a property boom, not least because Ismailov has plonked his own 40-room, £50million marble and gold-domed mansion in the grounds of his hotel.
Visiting friends and family will be housed in five other brand-new villas on site.
It is an astonishing investment in the resort, where more modest properties, with prices starting at £35,000 for a two-bedroom flat, have been rising by ten to 20 per cent this year - a strong market even when the 6.5 per cent local inflation rate is taken into account.
Real estate in Turkey has been booming in recent years, helped by a fast-growing population and a seven per cent growth in GDP every year since 2001. The Bank of America says that Turkish property offers a 'safe haven' during these difficult times.