A story of moving a family and my Real Estate life in New York to family life and Real Estate in Northern Cyprus

Hi there or “WHATS UP ‘? As we say in New York!

My name is Pia .

My story is a weird one……

I was born in Denmark, have English/ Danish parents and have travelled all over the world. I moved to New York to help start up a Danish Eyeglass Company and got stuck when I met my Turkish Cypriot husband. Stuck as in, stayed for 19 years instead of one, started a family and lived the typical, amazingly stressful life of a New Yorker with kids in private schools and a weekend  house at the beach,  paying more to park the cars than you pay for an apartment rental in North Cyprus!!!!

For two years my husband had started to mumble about being bored and “How about going to Mongolia and live with a tribe  for a year, bring along a teacher of course or rent a boat and sail around the world ……..”

Typical mid-life-crisis

So trying to avoid living with a tribe, miles away from any Starbucks, I agreed to go with him to Northern Cyprus for 3 days, and visited a few North Cyprus schools.

The thought of living on a Mediterranean Island, with a lovely, sunny climate and a completely new and different culture was exciting and crazy………. and we could always go back to New York….

I “fell” over this perfect house in Lapta North Cyprus, with lemon and orange trees in the garden, a view of the towering Besparmak mountain from the pool, and the blue Sea blinking in the distance. The thought of picking our own fruit from our garden and waking up to absolute peace and  quiet, was so different to our  apartment on the 21st floor, in a Luxury  High-rise on the Upper Eastside in Manhattan, with the constant hum of traffic and the lights from  5000 other high-rise buildings around  us. In Lapta all we see at night is stars.

2 Months and 4 containers later (my kids insisted on bringing everything from the trampoline to the boat!), we stood in the house in Lapta on a hot August afternoon and looked at each other in shock. After a night of sand flies and no sleep, we  almost packed our bags and left…! WHAT HAD WE DONE!!!

Who would think that such a small animal (Sand fly) could do so much damage? I sat awake till 6:00 am watching and killing those little b!!!!!!! landing on my sleeping kids. However, after the sun got up and I took one look at the green, towering North Cyprus Mountains, standing by the pool, I felt at peace, so decided instead to go to war on the sand flies.

Cyprus is the absolute opposite of what I am used to, maybe that is why I like it so much. I would meet/ bump into more people outside the Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate Office on Madison Avenue in 5 minutes, than I meet in one week in North Cyprus (I worked at the largest Real Estate Company in New York and on Madison Avenue)

I absolutely love the people of Northern Cyprus, they are kind and friendly, and the change in the quality of life since we came is huge. Now we sit around the pool, when we come home at night and have a drink and a chat, while the kids take a dip in the pool. Suddenly the memory of forgotten past events and trips come back, which makes me think you need peace to remember and appreciate the life you live. What good are fantastic trips to Marrakech Morocco, Florence Italy, Brazil and Aspen Colorado, if you forgot you went, because you are too busy and stressed out?

18 months into our move, which shocked all our friends, I can say that it was good for the whole family, and life seems to have taken a whole new meaning.

So when my girlfriend says she had Senator Hilary Clinton for dinner last night, I can say that the Muhtar of Lapta stopped by …….

Life is good….

TRNC is beautiful, with all the promises of things to come, as time stood still here during the past 38 years, because of the trade embargo. The weather combined with the location, the nature and the historical sites, makes this island and Northern Cyprus one of the most promising real estate investment places in Europe.

Anyway, in October 2007 I was introduced to Hayat Beyler and Steve Donaghy from Donaghy and Beyler Estate Agency, had the loveliest Sushi and had by the end of lunch, joined the company. (Whether it was Hayat’s to-the-point manner and bigger than life personality or Steve’s calm assurances that he would be there to calm her down, when she hit the roof, I don’t know)

So now I am working on, together with my partner Helena, creating special services and customized investment packages for foreign investors, and expanding the more exclusive end of the Donaghy and Beyler property portfolio, and named it  D & B ELITE.

Looking back I would not change a thing, and realize that life and the way we live it, can be anything we want, if we just have the courage to try something new.

Pia

D&B Elite

North Cyprus

www.donaghyandbeyler.com