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"Buying an apartment overlooking a motorway five miles from Istanbul airport is not the stuff of holiday home dreams. Seaside resorts on the Aegean and southern coasts around Marmaris, Altinkum and Bodrum would be better for that. But it might well make a good deal more money.
Istanbul is the fastest-growing city in Europe, rivalled only by Moscow: a vast, sprawling metropolis spanning the Bosphorus with a population officially put at
12.9million - some say 15million is more likely - that has grown by 350,000 people in just two years.
Many reckon a total of more than 20million is inevitable in a country where the average age is only 28, against the UK's 39.
A stroll down the pedestrianised streets of fashionable Taksim reveals the kind of crowds usually encountered in China or India, and the Turkish economy reflects the Asian successes, expanding at six per cent.
All this means that there are huge pressures on housing in Istanbul, where 250,000 new homes are required every year - the optimistic government housebuilding target for the whole of the UK - while only 75,000 are being built.
Just over half the residential property in Istanbul is rented and 60 per cent is either unlicensed or deemed sub-standard in construction.
'We welcome all British investment in Turkey and those who buy at this scheme will become ambassadors for Turkey,' says Egemen Bagis, the minister for EU affairs.
For the Turkish government, full membership of the EU, which is strongly resisted by some member states, would not only address a cultural neurosis to be seen as part of Europe, not the Middle East, but would also find employment for its vast, young workforce.
All this means investors from Britain, which does not rule out Turkish EU membership, receive a warm welcome.
