This paper discusses the transfer of property rights as an active strategic tool that defines space (re) production, development, protection, and management processes and presents a creative approach and a perspective for urban resilience by an alternative land management model proposal. The discussion in this paper largely differs from the understanding of the concept both by the planning institution and the majority of academic studies. While the planning institution approaches the transfer of property rights as a passive ingredient, academic studies focus mainly on the outcomes of this transfer in economic terms and they fail in defining the necessary strategies, policies, and regulatory tools to decrease risk and negative impacts. The alternative approach presented in this paper suggests that property rights as a creative approach and policy tool for urban resilience should be examined on the basis of the relationship between partial interests in property; relative to value, land use, the location and the amount and type of real property transactions. A coastal region in Turkey where all types of historical, cultural, and natural resources are concentrated, but rapidly destroyed with the pressure of tourism, energy investments, and secondary housing is selected as a case for the analysis of the effects of the property market with the planning/urbanization problems in the region. The case study takes into account the internet data of transfer values by property types in the year 2008. The case study is used for presenting an administrative model that is implemented through and understanding for spatial planning to achieve urban resilience. This understanding is based on the concepts of integrated coastal zone and protection area management that are realized by controlling and directing transfers in order to limit the impact of the market and planning institutions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.