I have bought in Turkey but never an off-plan unit. Though people have mixed feelings about Turkey, prices not going up quickly enough or at all for investors, property laws constantly changing etc etc I still wanted to buy for my own reasons and not to necessarily keep up with the Jones's.

I put a reservation fee, though small, on a 1 bed flat on the outskirts of Istanbul on the basis if I was not satisfied with the contract/place Regnum, the Developers, would return my money.

I went on an inspection trip to view Astrum Towers and thought they were good for the price but some of the materials were really cheap and would fall to bits in no time. It was the same on their complex, Bargylia, Bodrum. My niggling feelings concerning the complex was that it had far too many flats and it was miles away from Istanbul itself. The domestic market for rental appeared to be good but the returns very low and if you had a mortgage you might even lose money.

When I looked through the contract I was not happy with some of the clauses and returned it to their solicitor to amend. They would not budge on any of their clauses and after some time (a few months) and many emails and phone calls and unbelievable pressure to buy I stated that the deal would only go ahead if they would reach a compromise concerning their contract.

Because I would not agree to the contract they withdrew the 1 bed flat put it back on the market and kept my reservation fee.

I disputed this with them and they said the matter was closed even though we had verbally agreed that should we not come to a mutual agreement on the contract and if I was not happy with its contents that I would get my money back. I never received the emails informing me of their decision and had been under the impression that they were rewriting some of the contract (foolish me)! I asked them to send these emails to me as a matter of record.

This has left me with a very bad feeling concerning Regnum and their sales methods. I not only got pressure over the phone but endless emails and phone calls from one of their agents who tried to tempt me in so many ways to go ahead with the purchase.

I don't think I will ever go down this route again. Off-plan is for the big boys, those who can afford to throw away their money. Giving control to a bunch of rogues over your money is one of the biggest mistakes I want to avoid.

So far as Regnum is concerned I would not recommend them and I would not purchase a single unit anywhere from them.

I suppose I should be thankful that my reservation fee was only the cost of a good laptop but in all honesty I would much prefer the laptop!

On a positive note, your post will probably end up costing them far more than the cost of a laptop because it will put off anyone doing research on the company before buying from them.