Buying inTurkey:Dubliner Noreen Slattery talks to Lara Marlowe as she gets ready to move into the villa she bought in a seaside resort south of Kusadasi

THE FIRST time she heard about property in Turkey, Noeleen Slattery, a semi-retired practitioner of Chinese medicine from Rathcoole, Co Dublin, wasn't the least bit interested. One of her daughter's friends was selling holiday homes on commission, and Slattery said "No". Then her eldest son Paddy said: "Mam, you should go and have a look. The Turkish people are very nice."

"I said: 'But the bombs!'" Slattery recalls over coffee in Altinkum, a quiet seaside resort one-and-a-half hours south of Kusadasi, the principal Irish destination in Turkey. She was referring to sporadic attacks by Kurdish separatist guerrillas. "Paddy said: 'Mam, you can get those in Dublin'."

Estate agents were offering an all-expense-paid trip to Turkey. "If you didn't buy anything, you had to pay €300 or €400," Slattery says. She visited a variety of apartments and villas, but didn't like anything she saw. On the last day, their guide, who happened to be the town planner, said: "I'll show you my place", and drove her and Paddy to a building site on an open field.

Slattery had just sold her clinic, and wanted to invest the money. The moment she saw the site, she said to herself: "This is it." Though a good walk from the sea and from the town, it is quiet and enjoys a constant breeze off the Aegean.

She has sea views from the third floor roof terrace, and likes the fact that a golf course is planned for the wild land adjacent to the development. The Akbuk mountains rise in the distance.

Two weeks after visiting the site, Slattery signed a contract with an agent in Dublin for not one but two villas; one for herself and the second as an investment. The initial asking price was €130,000 each. She negotiated the price down to €115,000.

There have been "no hidden costs whatsoever", Slattery says. "You only have to keep property in Turkey for more than one year to avoid capital gains tax." She has one small legal detail to attend to. Her solicitor in Dublin told Slattery she cannot add the Turkish properties to her will in Ireland, but must make a second will in Turkey.

Slattery's Turkish properties are in a development of 28 semi-detached villas. There's a large swimming pool.

Each villa has four bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms - one with a Jacuzzi - and a large roof terrace with barbecue.

They measure 186sq m (2,000sq ft) - larger than Slattery's 167sq m (1,800sq ft) home in Rathcoole.

Each time Slattery travelled to Turkey while her home was being built, she rented an apartment in Altinkum. From May until November, she takes direct flights from Dublin to Izmir or Bodrum. During the winter, she must fly via Gatwick or Istanbul.

Slattery drew up a "snag list" in September. The mid-October visit I shared with her was the last before moving in, to make sure the furniture she'd ordered was delivered, and that small defects were corrected. "I held back the last payment, about €23,000, to make sure it gets done," she explained.

The dual-use air conditioners/radiators had all been installed, but there was no trace of the curtains or burglar alarm she'd ordered. The villas were furnished with simple, functional furniture, much of which Slattery later decided to exchange for more expensive models.

Slattery has known tragedy in her private life, and it was a pleasure to see her so happy at discovering her nearly completed holiday home. "I'm doing this for ME," she said. "And it feels great. The last time I went back to Dublin, I said: 'My God, how am I going to live here?' I joke that Rathcoole will be my holiday home. I love it here. The only bad part of it is that I'm so old (at 71). But 20 years ago, I wouldn't have had the money."

Each time she visits Altinkum, Slattery goes for morning walks on the beach. "By the third day, Turkish people were talking to me," she says. She's pleased that there are fewer foreigners in Altinkum than other Aegean resorts.

"I got frightened a few times," Slattery admits as we take in the sun on her roof terrace. "The long delays frightened me. It was supposed to be ready in June 2006. Unfortunately there was nothing in the contract about delays.

"I say to myself: 'The same thing happens in building at home'. I thought we'd be here for Easter this year. But I have confidence in the builder; he's done good work."

With six children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Slattery is sure to have many visitors. She plans to install a refrigerator and sink next to the barbecue on the third floor roof terrace. She may turn the top floor bedroom into an upstairs livingroom. And she'll plant bougainvillea along the stone wall around her ground floor garden.

By the swimming pool, we meet Molly Harrison, from Portsmouth, England. "I've been coming here for 14 years and I love it," Harrison tells Slattery.

"No problems at all. I've taken the bus to Samsun (on the Black Sea coast) and Gaziantep (in the south). People are incredibly hospitable." "Are you alone?" Slattery asks. "Yes," Harrison replies. "I am too," says Slattery.

Chance has organised the European retirement community in Altinkum beautifully. Harrison tells Slattery about the trust fund that she and other pensioners have set up, to build a non-denominational church in Altinkum. "We all pray together, and have tea and biscuits together," she says. "There are Church of Scotland, Church of England, Baptists and Catholics. We went to see the governor in (the nearby town of) Didum. The church will be near the marina.

"Once we've got ourselves organised as a church, we're going to go explore the ancient churches in Cappadocia." Slattery has never had time to visit the beach nearest to the villas.

"The beach is fantastic," Harrison reassures her. "The sand is silver, and you can walk out for 100 metres and you're only up to here," Harrison says, holding a hand at chest level. "I always think of this place as the real land of milk and honey.

"I lost two stones here, because the food is so healthy. I had angina when I first came; it's gone. But you have to learn to relax. Everything comes in its own good time."