Turkey was voted the number one place to invest by International Property. (Inside Track Magazine)

With talks taking place regarding Turkey’s joining the EU, now is the time to buy before the prices hikes that would be caused by accession.

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

The introduction of local mortgages at the end of 2007, coupled with property prices that remain comparatively low (from £34K), Istanbul has become really exciting for the sage investor.

More than 13,000 Brits have already property in Turkey. This has been almost exclusively within the coastal resorts of Bodrum, Altinkim, Fethiye and Alanya. Some of these owner have seen there properties double in the few years.

It is however in the largest city, Istanbul, where the supply of new houses builds has not kept up with the growing demand.

Istanbul’s city population has trebled since 1980. Every year economic migrants from the countryside join immigrant foreign workers to swell number of new residence by over 700,000. This is not to mention the additional 5 million tourists that visit each year.

International hotel chains, such as Intercontinental Group (the owner of Holiday Inn & Crown Plaza) have already identified the cities potential and have entered the market, joining the Marriott, Four Seasons & Sheraton. Interest in commercial real estate has also been seen by the huge financial institutions, such as, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.

The Istanbul residential and commercial property markets are undergoing almost unprecedented growth. Since 2005 foreign ownership of property in Turkey is now completely open and the laws protecting property ownership rights have been tightened, allowing investor confidence to be rekindled after a period of some uncertainty. Turkey's promise as a future EU member has encouraged an immediate surge of overseas investors, particularly within the commercial property market in Istanbul - Ikea opened a store in Istanbul in 2005 and has been followed this year by Harvey Nichols.