“THE BEST PROPERTIES MONEY CAN BUY” ALİ GÜLER, CEO
We would like to introduce you to
Mykonos Homes, the cover feature for this issue, and
Cyprus Constructions, the contractor of this new project. We met Ali Güler, the CEO of Cyprus Constructions, at the Califorian Restaurant situated in
Maldives Homes and he managed to devote time for this interview at a very busy time for him, even though it is the off season.
- Ali, we know that you have been in this market for a long time, especially in this region to the east of Kyrenia... There are many questions we want to ask, but before that we would like to hear your views on this region, especially for our many overseas readers. Can you tell us about the Esentepe and Bahçeli Region?
First of all, I would like to thank you and the Propertync Family for giving me this opportunity. Yes, I have been working in the construction and real estate sector, especially in the Esentepe region, for about 19 years. What attracts me to this region is not only the fact that this is basically a virgin area, but also that it is one of the greenest regions of our country, offering the unique embrace of both sea and mountain scenery. It is an incredibly attractive spot for people interested in hiking or cycling among the pine trees. The beauty offered by nature, with the different colours in winter, becomes an incredibly special place, especially with its endemic orchids in spring.
If we also add Alagadi Caretta Beach, one of the beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean, and the Korineum Golf facility, which operates as the only international golf and beach resort in our country, I think you can see the unique charm of the area, not only of just the Mediterranean, but also of the world. In addition, the fact that there are building size limitations in the Esentepe region, that it offers a lifestyle intertwined with more low rise, garden based, green and natural, instead of high and vertical structures; this is more in tune with the expectations of both foreign and domestic investors. Today, many people living in busy cities with hectic business schedules in the large conurbations of the world, they invest in our country for the natural and historical splendours offered by this beautiful island, the pearl of the Mediterranean. We are trying to promote our country and especially the Esentepe region in the best way, by shouldering our responsibilities, not just waiting for initiatives from the Ministry of Tourism. Unlike many construction companies looking for foreign investors, instead of sitting and waiting for customers to come to us, we are energetically working non-stop, like a promotional ambassador, to keep the sector alive and moving forwards. We present our country, culture, history, nature and region to the international market with all its beauties and offering a true Cypriot hospitality. Firstly, we introduce our country, then our region and finally our projects.
- Let's get to know Cyprus Constructions a little; what has your company done so far, have you always built housing projects in this region?
Cyprus Constructions is a company operating under the name of Califorian Trading Ltd. It has been operating in the construction sector for about 25 years, under the leadership of our director Salih Kayım. We are a company that has completed projects, especially in the Esentepe region, with nine different housing projects completed so far. Our company, with which we have gained great momentum in the field of construction in the last few years, is the leading company and the largest construction company in the Esentepe region, with four different projects ongoing today. As Cyprus Constructions, our company policy is to create high quality living spaces. We don’t offer just a home, we offer our customers a privileged lifestyle concept. While creating these projects, we work as a harmonious team, growing every day. I have to say that it is the visionary personality of our company director, Salih Kayım, and the fact that he is truly open to new ideas, which are amongst the most important factors that motivate our entire team.
In our company, there is a team relationship that works with a desire and passion; not the standard boss-employee relationship.
- Our cover feature shows Mykonos Homes, which is located very close to your Maldives Homes project. Maldives Homes came to the fore as a popular and safe holiday destination with the decrease in hotel activity during the pandemic period and your investors started to earn very quickly by renting ... Is this the reason why Mykonos Homes sprang into action?
Yes, we have achieved many firsts on our island offering a complete, concept project with Maldives Homes. Imagine a real seafront project, it offers you 5-star hotel, quality service. We pitched to our customers and offered the slogan "Where Your Dreams Come True" with the quality and service concept we provide, and this slogan was widely accepted by everyone. We have created Maldives Lake Villas, private villas and apartments of different sizes in our Maldives Homes project. We didn’t take the approach of ‘how many properties can we get on the available space to increase profits’, we thought whatever project we create, how can all our houses benefit from sea and mountain views meaning that, on completion, property values will have the opportunity to increase for their owners. Whilst doing this, instead of building 20 more flats, we wanted a very special concept project that everyone would be happy with and we believe we have succeeded. The sales value of our customer’s homes who bought from us at the beginning of the project, have increased by 100% by the time the project was completed; this is an incredible investment return rate. We believe the reason for this not only relates to the design concept of the project, but also that we use aesthetics and harmony the best way. Using very high quality products, we have even introduced underfloor heating systems in every house as a standard feature; we believe this was a first. We have solved many features in our homes in the best way. We have also led the way in the landscaping with a plant rate applied per m2, using more than 5,000 plants, of more than 100 varieties, throughout the gardens. The service quality we provide leads the way in terms of rental management returns for our customers, again breaking records. We have guaranteed 7% of the value of the house as a rental return to the investor and, in 2020, even during the pandemic period, our investors earned very serious income from their homes where they were unable to visit themselves. While there is negative interest in many European countries, we became the first company in this field to provide our investors with a 7% annual rental return (ROI) and a 50% annual real estate value increase (capital gain). In fact, Maldives Homes is a project of firsts in many ways. We have created a project that we want to take you beyond your dreams. Many of the customers who visited us said, “Is this Cyprus? We haven't seen such a good project in Cyprus", proving to us that we are on the right track. We continue to move our projects forward by working every day and continuing to improve ourselves.
- Then we would like to hear the story of Mykonos Homes…
While creating the Mykonos Homes project, it actually proved a much greater responsibility following on from the Maldives Homes project. People were asking what the creators of the Maldives Homes project will do now, putting us under enormous pressure. We wanted to create a different concept project that will be the project of firsts. For this, we had to find the most important factor, the land.
In addition to the Maldives Homes project, we solved this land issue by taking the land that had previously contained some 25 villas that had not been constructed for about 15 years. Initially we removed the visual pollution in the area by demolishing the old buildings, we separated the old materials and recycled the concrete into a filling material. We also contributed to the economy by recycling the iron, thereby fulfilling some of our environmental responsibilities. The second stage was the design issue, how were we going to improve on the already first class Maldives Homes project.
After long studies we reached our decision based on teamwork. For our new project, we wanted to make a project based on the concept of the Cavo Tagoo Hotel, one of Europe’s most popular hotels, located in the Greek Islands. We managed to complete our project with exceptional input from our architects and other colleagues. You may well ask what made this hotel so special, let me explain. This hotel is a boutique hotel, by the sea, and each room has its own private swimming pool on its own terraces. Apart from that, it presents an elite lifestyle in the best way naturally. It contains Mediterranean colours, from stone walkways where bougainvillea flowers abound, to a windmill. By combining these features with its first class services and quality, it has become the meeting point for many celebrities, both from Europe and worldwide. For this reason, hotel accommodation rates per night may rise to 22,000 Euros at some peak periods. We have made the Mykonos Homes project in the Cavo Tagoo concept and have given our customers the chance to own a house and invest in such a project. We have even placed new ideas in the project and designed villas by making islands in large pools like in Dubai. In other words, in our island country of Cyprus, we have actually offered our customers villas on their own islands. We have also offered private swimming pools or jacuzzis on their terraces to all of our apartments. This time, we did not hesitate to maximize the expectations of our customers by setting our new slogan as “The Best Houses That Money Can Buy”. We have pushed the limits of our imagination to the fullest. Thus, we have offered a unique opportunity to our investors who want to earn a high profit, both in owning a house and for investment. Our project, which we launched during the pandemic period, saw 25% completed sales in a very short time and it has continued to carry our excitement forward with this project principle based on the right land.
- As Cyprus Constructions, we are also curious about the services you offer and will offer with this project; can you supply information on this subject?
The most important point for us is "Customer Satisfaction, Quality Service and Hygiene". With this understanding, we offer our customers the best, the most beautiful, and offer them the privileged Cyprus Constructions quality. We build our Mykonos Homes and Maldives Homes projects as two different concepts in front of a natural Lagoon Beach. In other words, both projects will benefit from a seafront project and the unique, natural lagoon beach. We can list our services in our project as follows:- salt water swimming pools and private swimming pools, outdoor heated pool, leisure centre, fitness centre, health centre, spa and wellness centre, Turkish baths, sauna, massage, heated indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, beauty centre, meeting and conference centre, laundry, mini market, Califorian Restaurant, tennis and basketball court, bicycle club, safari tours, kayaking courses, yoga courses, dance courses, personal trainer, mini golf, scuba diving, water sports, beach cinema, beach bar, sandy lagoon beach. In addition, we offer a free shuttle service, twice a day, to the Korineum Golf Resort and local supermarket.
In addition, we keep customer satisfaction at the highest level with our property management department. The after-sales services we provide are based around making the lives of our customers easier, such as airport transfers, car rental, taxi, cleaning, dry cleaning, personal shopping, bill payment and welcome package services.
Moreover, we offer our customers continuous income with our Rental Management Service. For example, we market the homes on behalf of our customers who have signed rental contracts with us, we find customers and carry out entry and exit transactions. We take full responsibility for the items in the house that might be damaged. Most important of all, in the rent management system we have established, we use our own products without using personal belongings such as bed sheets, pillows and towels. When the owner returns home, we put their personal products back in their home under completely hygienic conditions. In this way we both protect personal products and comply with local hygiene rules. We do not risk the health of our customers, as homes are disinfected after each use.
In addition, we have created the concept of "New Model in Rental Management" to make our rental services more professional. With the international agreements we have made, we have already managed to find customers who will rent the houses before the construction of our customers' houses is completed. With this strategy, we have developed a rental income concept that will make a difference for our island. Our homeowners, who earn frequent and higher rental-guaranteed income with short-term lets, can stay in their own homes whenever they want. I think that this new term, rental model which we have created will become a standard model, becoming more widespread in our island after the pandemic period.
- Let’s summarize 2020 with a global health crisis, what have you done? How has this period been?
Actually, 2020 has been a year where everyone has learned lessons. First of all, we established structures that we can renew ourselves continuously, so that we can adapt to the changing conditions as quickly as we can and move on. At the very beginning of pandemic, we used March and April to change ourselves and our infrastructure in accordance with these new conditions; we worked hard. By March, we started our sales again under new conditions. We offered our company and our projects to the world in a completely different environment by making presentations, seminars and intensive introductions on 5 continents in different languages. We have succeeded in attracting international investors by offering them our country as one of the most reliable countries in the world, with its unique natural and historical beauties and high quality housing projects at the best prices. Whilst many of our team did not even have any real knowledge of online shopping before the pandemic, we are now managing to sell our houses in our projects via the internet to the whole world. We are a company that has adapted and met the changes in these new world conditions. Despite the pandemic conditions, we have also managed to continue on our construction without major breaks. We have kept the promises we made to our customers before the pandemic hit, this has given our customers a lot of confidence. We haven’t postponed any of our investments by using the pandemic as an excuse. We haven’t fired any of our colleagues during this difficult time.
- You have 4 active projects currently being sold, correct? Apart from the two projects already mentioned, your Idyll projects with Pearl Island and loft apartments, all of which consist of studio apartments… Can you tell us about these two and also about the payment plans that you offer in your projects?
Yes, currently, apart from the Maldives Homes and Mykonos Homes concept projects, we have the Idyll Homes and Pearl Island projects, which will be completed in May 2021. Both of these projects have their own special qualities. The Idyll Homes project consist of two types of apartments with modern structures, 1 and 2 bedroom options, ground floor and first floor in a great location, just 200m walk to Esentepe Beach. There is a supermarket opposite the project and the area offers several restaurants within walking distance. Our Pearl Island project will have a food service area and will consist of 156 houses, situated opposite Esentepe fisherman’s shelter. This will appeal to different nationalities, offering a large swimming pool that will flow from differing layers throughout the garden. In all our projects, we offer flexible interest-free payment opportunities of up to 4 years. Therefore, the investor can pay for the house by instalments and actually meet some of them with rental returns. We are able to offer loans of up to 10 years to our domestic and foreign customers who want longer payment opportunities through the banks we have agreements with. In addition, we can offer flexible terms with customer-specific payment plans. We are also the first construction company on our island to accept Bitcoin payments for home sales; a new form of payment! Bitcoin, which has become widespread in many countries throughout the world, is a very important element for us when it comes to making and finalizing quick decisions by investors. From our recent studies, we have now also started to receive payments for spas, restaurants and other services we provide daily in Bitcoin. In other words, a customer who comes to us will be able to get all the services we offer by using their Bitcoin app on their mobile phone.
- Finally, we would like to ask, what are your goals and expectations in the New Year?
As an organisation we are implementing our renewable electricity generation facility with a capacity of 373 kW on 80 acres of land where we have completed its entire infrastructure in January 2021.This excites us a lot, but it makes our goals even bigger. In addition in January 2021, we aim to provide new jobs to hundreds of people and contribute to the country's economy by offering our very comprehensive ready meal factory, where we have completed a closed area of 2,500 m2 and where technologies that are not even in Turkey are used. Also in 2021, we are thinking of implementing another surprise concept project that will mark the first in the construction sector. All our colleagues are continuing their work on this project uninterrupted, to ensure its implementation as soon as is possible.
In 2021, we expect our county’s politicians to take bolder decisions that will pave the way for the construction industry, which generates hundreds of millions of pounds of annual foreign currency returns to our country and, in turn, feeds numerous other sectors of the economy. By changing the present, cumbersome bureaucratic structure, we need to make it more attractive for large investors who want to invest in our country to come to the island. Just as countries such as Dubai, Singapore and Malta have solved similar problems, allowing their economies to grow, we can do the same with the will and determination we will show. There are many successful international and domestic companies like ours, in many different areas in our country. These companies and our successful business people compete head-to-head with the world’s giant businesses and market what they produce to the whole world. We expect the same international success and vision from our politicians who are there to lead this beautiful country. If we achieve this, we will reach the standards we deserve as a country and society will benefit much faster
written by Propertync
Media
date :
05/15/2024
hour : 09:15 AM
