The efforts for conservation of cultural heritage in historical settlements are highly problematic issue in Turkey. One of the main reasons for this is highly associated with the limited fiscal compensation provided by the central ministries and local bodies for those people who live and/or possess immobile property under restrictions of their development rights. For this reason, it is indispensable to introduce new tools for the effectiveness of the conservation activities of the heritage areas. On the other hand, with the enactment of the regulations Transfer of Development Rights (Law no: 5226/2004) is entered Turkish Planning System as a new and innovative solutions. However, there has been any available application of the TDR and implementing regulation yet. The main objective of the thesis is to discuss the applicability of the TDR as an instrument for the ease of the conservation procedure in the 1st Ring Residential Area which is located in Izmir’s Historic core areas, Kemeraltı region. In methodology, a bundle of techniques such as survey analysis and depth questionnaires are used. We made a comparative study based on a typical "what-if case" that if the case study area were not really under the status of conservation then how it would be developed in accord with the Development Plan’s right. Assumption that "If the Agora-Kemeraltı region were not really under the conservation status, it would be similar to the Alsancak-Çankaya region which is 500 meters away." the comparison of the housing market value between the two areas realized the restricted development right by the conservation plan.The Ministry of Culture and Tourism grants only accounts for 48% of the total maintenance and restoration cost. Due to financial deficiencies, it is not feasible to preserve the region with current planning tools. Even though, the preservation of Historic Kemeraltı seems to be a difficult challenge, there seems to be some positive clues for the future with the application of the TDR. Keywords: Cultural heritage, conservation planning, TDR, and its applicability.