When you’ve been living in the north all your life, you want to be more often where it’s hot and the sun is always shining. It’s an axiom, I haven’t met other people. But usually something holds: a good job, relatives, real estate…
So my wife and I always wanted to live near the sea, just not with Barents Sea, and, for example, with the Mediterranean. But family and work kept a strong anchor in the familiar place, which for us was Murmansk. Of course, we rested in the summer “on the seas”: in the domestic south, in Asian resorts, in Turkey, in Greece — however, these were one-time short-term outings.
But a few years ago we retired (early, we were both in our early fifties) and decided to change our lives: not partially, but completely, or almost completely. The children are already independent, the grandchildren are growing up, the pension is good (experience + northern + all sorts of allowances and the salary was not bad), there are savings. In general, they began to think about an apartment or their own house in the south. After weighing all the pros and cons, we decided that we want to live on the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Children would come to us, they would live with our grandchildren not for 7-14 days, as on tourist vouchers, but for as long as their hearts desire. We thought and wondered where to go and chose the Turkish Alanya, so beloved by our compatriots, to be more specific, the remote area of Demirtas.
I will tell you why the choice fell on Alanya
Turkey was chosen for quite banal reasons — it is hot in summer and warm in winter, there is a steamy sea and inexpensive housing. After all, there are a lot of “ours” here, an abundance of cheap and delicious fruits, inexpensive accommodation. We calculated, calculated and realized that we could live on our pensions. They began to look for housing.
But Turkey is big, there are many resort places, most of them are noisy and cheerful, and we wanted peace and quiet. We paid attention to Demirtas — it is a quiet and secluded area, 25 km from the center of Alanya. Gazipasa Airport is very close, just 15 km away. Antalya Airport, which is more familiar to tourists, is a longer drive away — a distance of about 160 km.
The reasons why we stopped at Demirtas:
In general, the perfect place…
How to buy
We chose a house through a domestic realtor who would specialize in Turkey. They usually have agents on the ground who can offer really good options. At least, we read about it on the forums and this information helped us a lot.
They chose from photos and videos online, while shooting is offered if the buyer is interested in the object. After a month of searching, we settled on one option and flew to personally see the selected house. We met with an agent — it was a girl from A Russian woman who married a Turk and speaks Russian and Turkish fluently. She took us to the viewing, in reality, the selected object coincided with the previously shown photos and videos.
We liked everything, we transferred the deposit and started to re-register the property. More precisely, our agent handled all the issues, and my wife and I only did what could not be done without our presence. In general, the purchase of the villa, and that was the name of our house, went off without a hitch, we did not lose money with the realtor — we worked very professionally.
What did you buy
I was attracted by the villa on the first coastline: literally 2 minutes walking distance and we find ourselves on a beautiful sandy beach.
I’ll tell you a little about housing. It has 3 rooms, bought with a popular 2+1 layout, that is, 2 bedrooms plus a living room with a kitchen. In principle, one bedroom would have been enough, but we have two adult children with young grandchildren who took turns staying with us almost all summer, so we definitely did not lose with the number of rooms. The total area is 130 sq. m.
The house has two floors, 2 toilets and the same number of balconies, a magnificent view of the sea. Furniture and household appliances were not bought, everything was already in place. In general, after completing all the documents, we immediately stopped by and began to live. Our villa is not a detached building, there are several other private houses nearby, for which there is a common area, it includes a swimming pool, barbecue area, parking. The neighbors are foreigners: Germans, Swedes, pleasant unobtrusive people.
The price of the villa is 88 thousand €. Plus, we paid a commission to the realtor, incurred some other expenses. The expenses for the realtor amounted to 2,000 euros, in order to register with the cadastral office, they paid a TAP in the amount of 2,800 euros. State duty, additional duty for foreigners, notary translator services, insurance, reissue of communications — this is about 300 units of European currency. In total, the villa cost about 93 thousand euros. By the way, additional expenses when buying housing in new buildings and on the secondary market differ, keep this in mind.
Do we regret it?
Life after the age of 50 often becomes dull, mundane, without vivid emotions. We need a shake-up. For us, buying a home in Turkey has become such a jolt. We exchanged the boring cold climate for Turkish warmth, a dull apartment with a gray cityscape for the juicy colors of the Mediterranean coast, met new people and mentality.
At the same time, we have not lost touch with our relatives and friends, and in a sense we help them by sharing our housing with children and grandchildren when they come to visit us. We have also not lost touch with our homeland and are free to come to Russia, when nostalgia becomes unbearable.
Our pensions and savings are enough for a normal life: prices for food, vegetables and fruits are lower here than in the Russian north, communal services are definitely not higher. Do we regret that we moved to live in another country? No, we do not regret it at all, we hope that life will continue to confirm the correctness of our decision. Good luck to everyone who tries to repeat our path!
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