The decision
Why a single project?
Nava Turkey is a brand for international investors looking at tourism in Türkiye. We keep our portfolio deliberately narrow: we commit to a place only when its location, timing and story convince us together. Today, the place we have chosen by that test is İznik.
In İznik it was the place itself that convinced us: a small-scale hillside on the lakeshore that development pressure has not yet reached. Sites like this are rare, which is why we brought the land, the property and the operation into one pair of hands.
We do not do this everywhere. Taking on few projects is what lets us give each one the attention it needs.
The place
A lake once open to the sea, a shore still largely unbuilt.
Lake İznik lies in a basin that sank along fault lines. It was once an arm of the Gulf of Gemlik; silt carried down by streams from the surrounding mountains gradually closed the link. Today it is a freshwater lake that drains its surplus to the gulf through the Karsak stream.
The southern, northern and eastern shores lie within the district of İznik, and the shoreline remains largely undeveloped. The local economy still rests on olives, grapes and fruit, and that is the main reason building pressure on the shore has stayed low.
The site is about 9 km from the town centre, at Şerefiye, on a slope facing the lake — the line where the olive groves end and the pine and oak begin.
Access
Two hours from Istanbul.
For guests from abroad, access comes first. A guest landing in Istanbul can reach İznik the same day.
The most practical route from Istanbul is the ferry to Yalova and then the road; İznik is about 70 km from the pier. The all-road route via Gebze is about 140 km. Bursa city centre is 83 km away; Sapanca and Gebze are just under an hour and a half away.
Travelling from the Gulf or the Caucasus? Our city pages cover the flight and the drive: Dubai to İznik, Baku to İznik, Doha to İznik.
Seasons
All year round.
What sustains a tourism property is the part of the year outside the high season; a property full for four months and empty for eight struggles. İznik is different because every season gives people a reason to come.
In spring the olives flower and poppies fill the foot of the walls. In summer the evenings are long and the day ends late by the lake. Autumn is the olive and grape harvest; the light turns golden and the crowds thin out. On winter mornings mist sits on the water and the far shore disappears.
In the most successful rural destinations, too, it is the place's own calendar that brings guests back through the year. Our guide to rural tourism looks at twelve of them, from around the world and Türkiye.
Layers
Two thousand years, four gates.
What keeps a guest for several days is, above all, what lies around the property. Inside the walls İznik is an open-air museum you can walk: a Hellenistic grid, Roman gates, Byzantine churches and early Ottoman buildings side by side.
The city entered world history with the First Ecumenical Council in 325; the Seventh Council of 787 met in the building now known as İznik's Hagia Sophia. 2025 marked the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council, which placed İznik high on the international travel agenda.
İznik was added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List in 2014. The same year a basilica was spotted in the shallows of the lake, about 20 metres offshore, and the find was named among the Archaeological Institute of America's top ten discoveries of the year.
And then there are the tiles. From the late fifteenth century İznik's workshops became the tile centre of Ottoman court art; cobalt blue, turquoise and the raised coral red that entered the palette in the second half of the sixteenth century are the signature of that work. The tradition continues today.
On site
We would rather show the land than describe it.
The videos below combine footage shot on site with architectural visualisations; construction is still under way.
The property
LOTT İznik.
On the ground, this is LOTT İznik: thirty timber houses on the slope above the lake at Şerefiye, each with its own pool. Nava Turkey will run the property under the About İznique brand.
The first units are complete and site works continue. The property's own site covers the houses, the area and the latest progress in detail.
Visit the LOTT İznik site →For investors
How we work.
Investor meetings take place on site, with the project in front of us. We share information on the project, its operation and the obligations involved before any commitment, and give investors time to review it with their own lawyers and advisers.
This page and our materials make no promise of returns. Questions such as property acquisition by foreign nationals, residence permits or citizenship depend on the individual and on current Turkish law; we recommend consulting the competent public authorities and independent advisers.
Geographic and historical information is compiled from the İznik District Governorate, the Culture Portal and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the TÜİK Address-Based Population Registration System and Bursa Metropolitan Municipality plan reports. Figures may vary slightly between sources. Images and video sections showing the finished project are architectural visualisations and are indicative. This page is not investment advice.