Istanbul Turkey Apartments

There is a huge influx of short to medium term travelers to Istanbul from all parts of the world. Many travelers, especially if they are planning on staying in Istanbul for more than a week or so search for furnished apartments for rent that makes a cheaper alternative to hotels. Serviced Apartments also provide more personal space than hotels.

Even though the furnished rental apartment market in Istanbul is not as mature as it is in several European cities, there are many property managers that provide serviced living spaces in central neighborhoods of the city. Services usually include basic cleaning, wi-fi Internet connection and other basic stuff. Some luxury living spaces go as far as providing airport pick-up services, meeting and business centers on the premises, concierge services, etc.. It is possible to find a wide range of furnished apartments in Istanbul from cheap and clean apartments to luxury residences designed for business travelers.

We will be providing a list of cheaper accommodation options in a later post, we wanted to give you an overview of apartments that might suit the needs of business travelers or short term guests with higher budgets. 

Here is a list of notable Luxury Serviced Apartments Providers in Istanbul

The Marmara Residences http://www.themarmarahotels.com (Asian Side) 

Marmara, actually started out as a hotel management company with their flagship hotel located right in the center of Taksim square. The group later expanded their properties to include 3 serviced apartments on the Asian side and 1 in New York. The locations in Istanbul include Suadiye, Camlica and Pendik on the Asian side of the city. The apartments are designed for the high end traveler with the Suadiye residence being located right in the middle of Bagdat Avenue, the prime shopping and entertainment district in the Asian side. The average daily rate for the Suadiye location is around 120 – 140 euros per night depending on the size of the apartments.

Gallery Residence  (European Side, Nisantasi, Sisli Area)

Gallery Residence Istanbul

Gallery Residence, the previous home to the British Council in Nisantasi, was converted into a hi-end serviced residence in early 2006. Another residence that is known for its efforts to combine art with living spaces, Gallery Residence named each of its rooms with names of famous painters like Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Goya, Monet, Gustav Klimt, Picasso, etc..The prices include a complimentary breakfast in the dining room of the hotel with a capacity of 30 guests and a gym with hydro message jacuzzi and a sauna is available for guests throughout the day. Gallery Residence is conveniently located in Nisantasi, the fashion center of Istanbul, which is full of high end cafes and restaurants which makes it ideal for travellers. The building is also only 150 meters from the Osmanbey subway station and it takes a few minutes ride to get to other central locations like Levent and Taksim.

Izaz (European Side, Beyoglu District)

Izaz, converted to a modern living space from an old Greek house in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul, offers compact but unique living spaces for travelers. Izaz has a small number of apartments available but it is conveniently located 2 blocks away from Istiklal street, the pedestrian street in Beyoglu full of cafes, restaurants, art galleries, theaters, etc..

Manzara Istanbul  (European Side, Galata, Beyoglu)

Manzara Istanbul, managed by a German Turk, offers a variety of unique apartments in the Galata district of Istanbul. Manzara office is conveniently located right next to the Galata Tower so it is not easy to miss it. The apartments are usually a combination

Manzara Istanbul

of the modern with a taste of the old. The price range for apartments start as low as 50 euros and goes up to around 160 euros depending on the size, location and amenities of the premises. Manzara, literally meaning “view” in English, is not only the name of the management company but a real concept that is practiced by offering some apartments with really killer Bosporus views. Manzara office is really helpful and can accommodate requests from their guests to lend a local hand in case it is needed during your stay.

Asian Side Housing Alternative

 Global Residence Istanbul  is another serviced apartment alternative if you will be staying in the Asian part of the city. There are a total of 57 apartments that are designed in various concepts and there is a sauna, a restaurant, reception are and a sports center on the premises.

European Side Housing Alternative

Noa also provides a variety short term rental opportunities starting from short term. Noa’s properties are conveniently located and it is worth a look especially if you are searching for long term rentals furnished or unfurnished.

There is a great potential for a branded serviced apartment company to enter the market in Turkey and generate profits. I was keeping this blog as a satellite website to support other sites for indexing, crawling, etc.. up until now but I decide to start adding some actual business plans and industry reports regarding the serviced apartment industry in Istanbul and Turkey in general. So, here is some parts of a business plan for an Istanbul based potential serviced apartment chain that I wrote over 1.5 years ago. The situation is not much different and it should help give an insight to the Serviced Apartment Industry in Istanbul from an investment perspective.

The table of contents in the normal business plan goes like this;

I. Table of Contents

I. Table of Contents

II. Executive Summary

III. Business Opportunities/Description

Business Opportunities

Entry Strategy and Growth Timeline

IV. Business Model/Investments

Business Model

Revenue and Investment Model

Types of Investment Properties

Fund Overview

Fund Participation & Private Investments

V. Marketing and Management

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Approach

Competitors

Unique Selling Position

Management Organization

VI. Market

VII. Sample Portfolio Proposal

VIII. Conclusion

IX. Contact

And, I will be publishing some parts of the plan possibly in multiple posts. Let’s call the imaginary serviced apartment chain “Techart” and the investment fund “ABC” Here is some of the content from different parts of the plan.

Please note that some parts of the plan will be deleted for several reasons one being confidentiality. If the text does not make sense, it is probably because there are parts missing between the sentences.

II. Executive Summary

ABC Investment Fund (hereinafter referred as ABC) has identified a significant business model opportunity in Turkey and structured a business model designed to – invest in real estate market in Istanbul, create a serviced apartment brand with a first mover advantage for resale to global serviced apartment chains and ensure a safe investment model with multiple value drivers in place.

ABC’s business model is highly flexible, inflation secure and an opportunity driven model. The investors will have absolute comfort in the investment strategies implemented and the availability of multiple exit strategies.

ABC is a real estate investment fund operating in the Istanbul market since 20**.

Legal framework – The TECHART serviced apartment fund (hereinafter referred as TECHART) will be a seperate investment company and investors will have equity participation in the company.

Security – The objects acquired will be registered in the investment company.

ROI – Estimated return of X% per annum. See financial projections.

Management – The management will be provided by ABC Managment which will work on both renting the units on a consistent basis and build brand name recognition for the portfolio. Continue reading →

One comprehensive blog about apartments for sale and for rent in Turkey and in Istanbul is Apartments in Istanbul. The blog, although it is named Apartments in Istanbul, provides information about many places in Turkey including Marmaris, Datca, Akbuk, Didim, Belek, Bodrum, Antalya, Alanya, Kas, Kalkan, Yalikavak, Gumbet, Torba, Cesme and many others.

There is a great deal of difference in buying a holiday villa in the south part of Turkey and buying an investment property in a major city like Istanbul. The posts on Apartments in Istanbul blog are related to both and provides in-depth information for investors of any size. It is worth a quick look whether you are looking to buy a holiday villa in the south of Turkey or an apartment in Istanbul or Izmir or any other larger city.

The blog is written by expats living in several different cities in Turkey and all writers, some of which I know personally, have extensive experience in both living in Turkey and investing in real estate.

There has always been stable demand for holiday houses and villas for Sale in Turkey.  Tourisn has always been a major source of income for both everywhere from the fishing villages to more developed regions in the southwest part of Turkey. With the increasing influx of expats willing to live in this region, construction emerged as another industry with a lot of potential.

The increasing prices for housing in the region has come to an halt with the effects of global crisis taking its toll in the developing countries by panicking financial institutions and stopping the issuance of credits even creating call-back of open line of credits  for some developers.

Villa for Sale in Turkey

The sudden emergence of problems and instability in the world markets also panicked small investors who had their life savings in long-term and retirement funds. And this created a sharp decline in new buy requests.  Accordingly, a lot of new developments have been put on hold when sales saw a sharp decline. High cost of debt due to these reasons and general lack of credit availability in the world markets has led to developers offering deep discounts for on-going projects.

Some of these developers also had a risky model of investment that solely relied on selling the holiday houses off-plan to finance the construction even though they did not have sufficient funds to finance the projects themselves. A sharp decline hit these developers hard. The market was now full of cheap villas for sale everywhere in Turkey. According to some news outlets, the stock of unsold properties reached up to 60% of all holiday villas built in the past decade in the southwest region of the country.

The prices had seen a sharp decline until the second half of 2009 and started to recover from there and again started to increase slightly. Many developers still have some stock they would like to liquidate, however, a buyer needs to be careful and inspect the properties thourghly. Developers not with much experince, that had seen the profit potential between 2005-2007 also jumped on the wagon and some of them built low-quality holiday houses. This is one of the reason why some developers still have unsold stock in their hands.

Holiday villas with unique traits if priced reasonably still sells very quickly, sometimes in a matter of days of it is marketed right. This Kalkan villa for sale is one example of a unique property that can sell quickly.

If looking for holiday villas for sale in Turkey, it is probably the right time to make an acquisition. One still needs to inspect the property throughly, work with a solicitor and be careful with legal and tax issues.