In a recent press release the President of Fethiye Estate Agents has announced that house prices in the areas of Marmaris, Bodrum and Fethiye has fallen by as much as 40% in the last two years. He said that the boom years of 2005 and 2006, driven mostly by British buyers hungry for investment properties and second homes, were now gone.

The market is now correcting itself and builders, desperate to get empty properties off their books and get much needed cash in to pay off expensive debt, are slashing prices or even selling at below cost price. Property owners desperate to sell and raise cash are also contributing to the price reductions. According to ‘local’ figures apartment prices are down 35% and land prices down by 20%. But villas are the biggest losers down by around 40%.

It’s estimated that around 6,000 properties (we think that's a bit high!) are for sale in the Fethiye area but that demand last year from foreigners only amounted to 500 sales. Even with an increase in domestic demand for homes it will take some time to sell the property backlog and that’s assuming that those properties are what people want.

With the local property market now in a recession those in the local business are looking for something to blame for the down turn and, unsurprisingly, are blaming others for the current state of affairs.

Sharp practices, complicated bureaucracy, over pricing, competition from cheaper countries such as Bulgaria and Cyprus and fraud have been highlighted for the current housing recession. Calls are now being made for builders, developers and estate agents to clean up their act and review their business ethics.

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at one local estate agent who is well ahead of the game and has just launched a UK style purchasing package to protect property buyers and sellers in the risky Turkish property market.