We’d already been to Turkey a few times, fell in love with the country and, even more so, the people. So we wanted a bit to call our own.Being boring and methodical people we researched everything we could before travelling out, then spent 10 days in Turkey visiting virtually every development and building site (well, that’s what it felt like!) along the coast in range of Dalaman airport.We discovered that one of the big differences between the UK and Turkey is the enormous variability in the quality of construction – and even simple design sense - between the various developers/builders.We’d seen everyone on our list, and still hadn’t found the right property, in the right place, at the right price. By chance we decided at the last minute to have a quick look at Uzumlu, a little bit further back from the coast than we had in mind, but we’d heard some good reports from people we’d met.
The village looked quite attractive, with a nice selection of local shops, bars & restaurants, located in a beautiful valley surounded by wooded slopes and stunning mountain scenery, so we visited a couple of the local estate agents.We saw the plans for the development at Pine Tree Villas just outside the village and realised this was something quite different to any the properties we had visited during the previous week.A visit to the site, set on the edge of the forest overlooking the valley, and we were hooked.The villas were traditional in style but with every modern feature, and perfectly designed for the location. Fortunately, the work was still only half completed so we could easily see the quality of construction and materials being used.The excellent workmanship carried out under Guray’s close supervision made sure that it was finished off to a very high standard.
In fact, we were not planning to buy a property on this first visit.However, this was so much better than anything else we’d seen, that we just had to go ahead and take the plunge before we returned to the UK.The buying process went ahead, with stage payments as the villa was completed –and everything happened pretty much when it was supposed to happen.This was a great relief, as we had heard quite a few “horror stories” about various other developers from some of the local Brits.
In fact, we have nothing but praise for Guray and his team. Nothing was too much trouble. No problem with the few alterations we asked for. They not only gave us good advice on the purchase of our villa but helped us in dealing with the local shops, which made furnishing the villa so much simpler. Particular thanks to Aytan for this! Indeed, the whole buying process was pretty much hassle-free.
Of course there were problems, but these were quickly resolved.Two years later they are still just as helpful. And after two years, we still haven’t found a better bunch of people to deal with. If we had to sum them up in three words it would be: dependable, conscientious and knowledgeable. Which is difficult enough to find even in the UK these days and on top of all that, a strong instinct for good design.
Jacquie&Peter WATSON 