Set against the forest edge and built at low density, Çekmeköy is unlike the rest of Istanbul. Its stock is mostly villa developments, low-rise garden blocks and, more recently, new residential schemes.
Here the big cost line is not the building but the open space
In dense apartment districts, common expenses revolve around heating, lifts and cleaning. In Çekmeköy’s garden developments the picture changes: open-space costs dominate.
- Landscape maintenance and seasonal planting
- Running, servicing and winterising the automatic irrigation
- Upkeep of internal roads and footpaths
- External lighting, a serious electricity cost across a large site
- Tree pruning and fire precautions along the forest edge
Badly planned, these harm the development twice over: skimped maintenance lowers its appearance and its value, while unplanned work overruns the budget. In the developments we manage we set an annual programme for landscaping and irrigation and put it to the owners at the start of the season.
Winterising the irrigation system
The most frequent and most avoidable cost in garden developments is an irrigation system that was not drained in autumn and burst in the frost. It is entirely preventable, and it recurs in the same properties every year.
Draining the irrigation lines is a fixed item on our winter preparation checklist.
Security and site entry
In large, low-rise developments security is less a question of camera count than of perimeter integrity: the line of the fence, unlit corners and secondary entrances. We plan security around the physical layout of the site rather than by headcount.