Guiding power of spatial plans and real estate sector in urban development of Bodrum Yalıçiftlik

In today's world, where global liberal economic policies prevail, the development and transformation processes of cities are witnessing a mutual struggle of two different powers. "Spatial planning", which takes the power of the public sector behind, now takes the urban development and transformation decisions together with the "real estate sector", which takes the power of the private sector behind. The expectations of both sides from urban development and transformation processes are different and their contribution to these processes is also different. The literature on urban studies reveals a close relationship between spatial planning and the real estate sector. However, this relationship is often not examined in two ways, in which cases the spatial plans and the real estate sector become active and the dominant driving force in the production of physical environment are not mentioned in detail. This study aims to make a contribution to the gap in this field. It is possible to observe the mutual harmony and struggle between spatial planning and real estate sector in the best tourism regions. The places with high tourism potential in the world are under the investment interest of the real estate sector. While the tourism regions sometimes develop in a highly controlled manner through spatial plans, sometimes they show a free urban development in line with the supply and demands of the real estate sector. In the process of urban development, the parties sometimes act in harmony and sometimes conflict. The important issue at the end of the adaptation and conflict processes is whether the result is a planned and healthy urban development. The aim of this study is to explore the mutual power struggle between the spatial planning and the real estate sector in the Yalıçiftlik Town of Bodrum, which is a tourism region where the real estate sector shows great interest. During the last 30 years, significant urban investments have been realized in the Yalıçiftlik Town. In this study, it is aimed to understand the effect of spatial plans and real estate sector on the urban development of Yalıçiftlik Town. These urban developments are analyzed in detail based on real estate sector actors and urban projects. In this way, the cooperation or mutual power duel between the real estate sector and spatial planning have been put forward concretely. In this study, the data is collected by using document analysis, field research, in-depth interview and survey methods, and the collected data is analyzed using "content analysis". In the first stage of the research, document review is conducted, theses, articles and books written on the subject are compiled and examined in the context of the theme. In the second stage, all the spatial plans and urban projects of Yalıçiftlik, which was chosen as the case area, from the past to the present were reached and examined in the context of the theme. In the third stage, the change in the land values of Yalıçiftlik Town within the last 30 years depending on the urban investments was determined by dividing into five year periods. Changes in land prices are important in terms of showing the investment interest, tendency and behavior of the real estate sector within the town. In this phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with real estate appraisal companies and real estate agents operating in the town. The study shows that the real estate sector actors in tourism regions actively participate in the spatial planning process and direct the spatial planning process in line with their own wishes and expectations. It is understood that strong cooperation among the real estate sector and spatial planning comes into prominence instead of the power struggle in the attractive tourism regions. Spatial planning and real estate sector tend to act in harmony with each other in tourism regions. The cooperation established between sector players and planners partially protects the tourism districts and partly causes identity change. Keywords: Urban Development, Spatial Planning, Real Estate Sector, Bodrum, Yalıçiftlik Town, Power Struggle