Officials repeatedly promise demolitions and inspections over the years, yet the bungalows remain. What began as “eco-tourism” now threatens Sapanca’s forests, water, and bird habitats — a small-scale portrait of how Turkey’s nature is being lost.

Among them: NEF-Kempinski, a $130m project promising 200 rooms and villas, and Lake Look, owned by businessmen linked to AKP. Both built on land once classed as first-grade protected.

Our investigation found that over 4,000 bungalows have been built, mostly without permits and many on protected land. In 2025, the government revised Sapanca’s conservation map, downgrading protections to legalise powerful investors’ lakeside resorts.

Turkey was the worst offender in all of Europe.

Luxury hotels, power plants, and yacht ports: Turkey’s endless construction boom has turned fields and forests into concrete and asphalt, consuming an area larger than Istanbul’s Anatolian side in only six years.

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