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New Alanya Residents Reshaping The Area

Alanya has experienced notable population and infrastructure growth in recent years. Since 1990 the population of the town center has increased from 52,000 to approximately 135,000 today. Approximately ten percent of Alanya's residents are of foreign origin, giving the city the highest proportion of foreign-born residents in Turkey. The region of Alanya has some 390,000 residents.

Part of the reason why the town's population has grown so rapidly in recent years is an impressive real estate boom. In the neighboring Mahmutlar district alone 2,500 foreign families have bought residences.

The evolution is reflected in the development of property prices in Alanya. Five years ago one bedroom flats could be purchased for as little as 20,000 euros; today, as locals point out, flats with such low prices are simply no longer available. During the past five years property value in Alanya has increased by 15-20 percent a year. Today the average price of a one bedroom flat is 50-55,000 euros.

As a result, the landscape of Alanya has changed radically, from a small tourist resort to a town spreading kilometers to either side of the Alanya fortress. Many who have bought property in the area have also started spending winters in town.

Hulusi Doğan, Governor of Alanya, told the Turkish Daily News that the problems caused by the strong growth of earlier years have largely been solved. “Alanya used to have a lot of problems with overcrowding and traffic. But these have been solved with notable effort from all sides,” he said.

Abdullah Karaoğlu, member of Alanya City Council and chairman of the town's tourism commission, agrees. “Infrastructure issues, caused by the building boom, have been solved. But, in fact, Alanya never had similar infrastructure problems like some of the neighboring municipalities had,” he said, referring to the sewage problems some of the neighboring municipalities in the Alanya region have experienced.