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Altinkum translates as golden sand and is a holiday resort on the south west coast of Turkey attached to the town of Didim in the county of Aydin. The European visitors are predominately British but it is also the destination for hundreds of thousands of Turkish tourists every year. The resort stands at the mouth of the Akbuk bay and is surrounded by the beautiful Blue Turquoise water of the Aegean Sea.

Due to the influx of British people purchasing property over the past three years (approx 3500 out of a total town population of 25000) there has been an explosion of building in the resort and surrounding areas ranging from 1 bedroom apartments to multi bedroom detached villas and the prices range from £20 000 pounds sterling to upwards of £100 000 pounds sterling.

The road network gives easy access to the rest of the country and it is being improved continually with motorways to Izmir and Aydin locally, and everywhere nationally. Bodrum airport is only 55miles away with the town and resort of Bodrum 25 miles further on. The standards of the local roads is as we write being upgraded with pavements being installed as a priority.

With the modernisation of the town which includes a new hospital, new law courts, new shopping centres and new tax offices the local council decided they would not be left behind and built themselves a new office block on the edge of town. As you may well imagine all this building is making the area look a little bit untidy at the present but if you have any forsight you will see that quite soon we are going to have a beautiful new and very safe and clean town and resort that any European will be proud to live in.

Contrary to the widely believed stories Turkey is not a brown and barron country quite the opposite, the truth is Turkey is a very large and wonderful green country that is self sufficient in growing vegatables, fruit, cotton and tobacco along with all types of flowers and trees. 

The climate here is wonderful, wintertime is chilly with an average temperature of 10deg c.  There is a lot of rain but if there are 3 days of rain this is normally followed by 3 days of warm sunshine. Springtime is beautiful warm and colourful with all the flowers blooming. Summertime is very hot sometimes reaching 40c but normally around 35c or 36c and autumn as always is its normal lovely self with temperatures of 25c.

The economy is the Turkish Lira and the cost of living is quite low. Council rates work out at approximately 20 pounds sterling per year. Water and electricity are on the meter so you pay for what you use.
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The purchasing of property is very simple. Having found a property you like you negotiate a price with the owner then you proceed to the land registry and get a map with the property arrowed on it. You then go to the council offices and get confirmation that the property is registered to the person who is the owner, you then take these 2 documents to the title deeds office with all your proof of identity passport etc. All these documents are sent off  for army approval to your purchase. When the approval is sent back to the title deeds office you and the owner go to the title deeds office and exchange monies and title deeds the property is then yours.

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Obviously there are expenses incurred with all these procedures this is why the EMLAK (estate agent) will guide you through the purchase and charge you 3 per cent of the price . The main stumbling block is the time it takes for the army to grant the permission for the property to be purchased. Other procedures in the chain can be very time consuming but a discreet financial present of a small quantity can cut the waiting time from days to minutes but not the army time.

Please come and visit our beautiful country and feel the warmth and friendliness of the people your life can only be enhanced by doing so.
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