Last night the GF and I went flat hunting with a local property person we’d found online whose portfolio seemed to have the sorts of properties we would like. It didn’t start well: he took us to one we’d seen on his website, which looked rather pokey, but when we arrived it was well beyond pokey. It was in a beautiful Greek building, with frescos on the ceiling, but the floorboards were rotten, the windows were rotten, there were immense cracks in the walls (in a city prone to earthquakes) and the wiring was twice my age. It had some views, but they led over other people’s lovely terraces, and while there was an expansive terrace for this building, it was also rotting, and the beautiful bay curving over the street (I don’t know the architectural term for it) had immense cracks and was clearly about to fall. The agent told us that the flat owners were pooling their resources to strengthen the structure, but that would either be inadequate or a great expense for the flat owners, so I certainly didn’t want to be one.
The next was a bit better – in Cihangir, a rather swish place that was just out of our budget. It was clearly intended as a luxe short-term rental and the walls were painted dark grey which, along with being on a busy (very desirable) street, made it feel rather inward looking. It had a view in the back, from the closed off balcony, towards the Golden Horn, but was not high enough to see the water, only a sea of rooftops and above them, Topkapi and the rest. It would undoubtedly be very comfortable to live in, though.
The third was by far the nicest. It was a flat lived in by a family and clearly cared for and made to their specifications. There was a small but pretty view over the Golden Horn and to the monuments, a number of balconies, and a spacious, airy bedroom. Here, though, there was another odd problem, that there was no circulation, not of air but of energy. The main roon was one long room, with a kitchen island in the centre dividing it into three spaces, but there were so many cabinets and so on that it felt stuck with neither sitting room to either side feeling usable for anything. It’s a shame because otherwise I did like it, and it was in our budget. Well, we are in no hurry and not even particularly committed to Istanbul, so the search continues.