alison09400

I'm curious to know what business rentals are like in other resorts.

I have a friend who's currently looking for a shop in the centre of Kusadasi but she has been shocked at the rental prices. The latest one she looked at is a brand new shop, corner position. location's not bad; rental £1,600 per month! It's only about 50sqm in size; we couldn't believe it! You'd get a shop in the centre of Belfast for that money. Every shop my friend has enquired about, the rental has been laughable.

Where do landlords get the sky-high figures from? Rental costs do not reflect the cost-of-living in Turkey and quite a few business' struggle to pay it with plenty of them not making a profit at the end of the season. Are landlords just plain greedy? In Kusadasi we've probably got 4 months of a proper season which is when a lot of business make their money.

I know of a small jewellery/leather shop in the main shopping street and the rent is £40,000 per year; utter madness!

Alison

JohnF

Generally speaking, yes.

JF

mavi

having seen these prices, i wonder how some, eh, most of the shops here survive at all!!

I actually feel a bit guilty over the prices of goods and the haggling I have done to get the price down...


Its high time shop tennants had a get together and simply refused to pay these prices... then maybe the landlords would have to de-crease the rent

parrot

Can't the rents also be haggled over,they tell you what they want and you tell them what you are prepared to pay,or is it the old catch all, I AM FOREIGN PLEASE RIP ME OFF,Or do they rip everyone off.

bobthenob

l had a friend in Altinkum once that rented a fairly large restaraunt,and turned it into a fish and chip place and a take away.The rent at first was 10,000pds,then the landlord came 4 months later and saw that their was money coming in,so he decided to double the renting to 20,000pds.
Before all this my wife and l thoroughly cleaned the place and also varnished and decorated all the table and chairs to a good standard.
Didn't get much appreciation from the landlord,just an attitude of you must do it,l have definitely noticed when the English come to rent out a place then they think here's a golden opportunity to over inflate the rent and exploit.
Of course one haggles,but they won't go to the rate thet Turkish rent out as to what English rent out.Same here in Akbuk,and the same in Altinkum.

parrot

I'll assume this also happens to the rest of the Brits.

v6cod

A turkish acquaintance in Dalyan who runs the local Arcelik shop had a small corner shop and he was paying 1,000ytl a month, he has just moved to a larger shop just up the road which is newly built and pays about the same amount.

alison09400

From my experience, rents can't really be haggled over, and in Kusadasi it doesn't really matter whether you're turkish or foreign, the rent's still atrocious.

My hubby rented a shop in 2005; it was a run-down `soup kitchen` for want of a better word. He totally gutted the place out and spent approx £20K in refurbishing the place; resembled nothing of what it had been before.

Directly facing the shop, a new multi-storey plus shops were being built. The street was inaccessible quite a lot of the time, lots of noise, dust, dirt etc. Then when the building was complete, our landlord decided he was hiking up the rent because the new shops would bring more business into the street. Needless to say my hubby told him where to stick his shop but told the landlord that he wants half the money he spent on the refurbishment. Now the shop's empty which is a shame because it's a really lovely premises and he can't find a tenant.

You would think that they'd realise that once they find a good tenant, they should be grateful and be content in receiving a realistic amount. In Kusadasi, there aren't all that many vacant shops at the minute because 9 times out of ten, someone will lease it, no matter what the amount is.

Alison

Karyn UK

The rent issue happens to everyone, not just Brits. Its pretty standard, Turks are used to massive inflation so the price always goes up every year irrespective of what the tenant has done to improve the place or the economic situation.

Also, its pretty easy to rent places out in a tourist resort primarily because they think owning a tourist business is a license to print money despite all evidence to the contrary. Lack of business management skills and lack of training in running a business compound this, which accounts for how quickly a lot of business' come and go. As an aside being bankrupt doesn't seem to hold the stigma it does in the UK, most of my Turkish friends have been bankrupt at one time or another!

Finally, its human nature, everyone wants easy money, they want the cash without the work, so if a business is successful they raise the rent. A similar thing happens here with property in Pembrokeshire, you cannot buy a barn to renovate because it no longer makes economic sense. The owner of any derelict building will ask so much for it all your potential equity in doing the place up is gone in the initial high cost of buying the shell.

One of our friends in Kusadasi who has an established business has his lease come up for renewal in February. He fully expects it to go up in price so much that he won't be able to afford it.

Maybe investing in commercial real estate is the way to go in Turkey, filling commercial space may be easier than selling houses!

K