When a list of the world's cities with the most rapid property price increases in 2017 was released last month, it came as little surprise that trendy Berlin was on top.

A matter of intrigue, however, was the second name on the list: Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, where prices surged by 18.5% last year. Flanking the Aegean coast, the city itself and the greater Izmir province have witnessed an intense wave of internal migration over the past couple of years, spiking prices and increasing speculation.

Many of those settling in Izmir are coming from Turkey's largest city of Istanbul, which for decades was known as the primary sought-after destination for migrants from throughout the country, ballooning in size and population. But between 2015 and 2016, according to official figures, the number of people leaving the city was 70,000 higher than those moving to it.

Turkish media reported earlier this year that more than 18,000 people left Istanbul for Izmir in 2017 and that a major segment of this group consists of white-collar, educated folks. In 2016, 16,000 people made the move. In what has been dubbed a brain drain, researchers have pointed to “traffic, extreme concretization and decelerated social interaction” as the primary reasons why people are abandoning Istanbul and opting for Izmir.