Let's talk Turkey (Times online 19th April 2009)

Zoe Dare Hall
With its Venetian-style bridges that arch across canals as clear as bottled Evian, Portville is a picture of relaxing holiday perfection. The gin-and-tonic terraces in front of the elegant waterfront houses catch the evening sun over the mountains and the daytime sparkle from the bay where Demi Moore and Bill Gates recently pitched up in their yachts.
The canals may hint at Italy, but this genteel new gated Swissotel development, with its large pastel-coloured, shuttered houses, is more reminiscent of Venice, Florida. One thing is certain - as you peer across Portville, a thought springs to mind: "I can't believe it's Turkey."
Turkey, after all, is all about cheap, isn't it? Cheap holidays (never more so than now, as Brits clamour to escape the eurozone) and cheap (and occasionally nasty) holiday homes. Both have been made more appealing by the relative weakness of the Turkish lira, which has remained fairly steady against the pound over the past year, while the euro has surged.
The cheap developments are still there, of course - in Altinkum, the Benidorm of the Aegean coast, you can still buy a new flat for as little as £25,000, although strong domestic demand has meant the country has avoided a Spanish-style collapse. Slowly but surely, however, high-quality properties with real architectural appeal are cropping up along the coastlines, particularly the southwest stretch from Bodrum to Kas, where most of the 21,000 British property owners in Turkey have bought.
"Turkey is definitely moving up market, with foreign buyers discovering new developments that were originally designed for wealthy Turkish individuals," says Murat Ergin, managing director of the estate agents Savills in Istanbul. "In the most desirable areas, such as Bodrum or Gocek, or new hidden gems such as the hilltop Aegean towns of Urla or Milas, prices are £1,350-£2,700 per square metre, and the quality is definitely at upper western standards."