Gaziosmanpaşa, Istanbul

Gaziosmanpaşa sits inland on the European side, north-west of the historic peninsula, with Sultangazi above it, Eyüpsultan to the east and south, and Bayrampaşa to the west. There is no coastline here and the district makes no claim to one. What it offers instead is established, fully serviced city: sixteen neighbourhoods, around 480,000 residents, and the metro, the tram and the TEM motorway all reaching it.

It is a young district on old ground. The settlement grew from 1952 around state-built housing for Balkan migrants, on a stony upland known locally as Taşlıtarla; it was separated from Eyüp in 1963 and named for Gazi Osman Pasha, the Ottoman commander who held Plevne; and in 2009 it was divided again, with Sultangazi and Arnavutköy carved out of it. Most of what went up in between was built quickly and privately, and most of it is now being replaced. On the municipality's own figures, kentsel dönüşüm (urban transformation) covers 432 of the district's 1,173 hectares — 36.82% of its area, the largest such programme in any Istanbul district. The new apartments that reach the market here come out of it.