Turkish property recession leaves hundreds of storybook cookie-cutter castles to rot on the world's most bizarre housing development
- Deep in the Turkish countryside lie 732 miniature black and white castles which look like a Disney film set
- But they have been left to rot after the Turkish economy faltered last year, looking set to enter a recession
- They were flogged to buyers in the Gulf but the developers went bankrupt after they defaulted on payments
- Each of the little castles cost around £400,000 and the project features a large shopping mall
In the Turkish countryside hundreds of identical neo-gothic villas stand starkly in the hillside, a project like something from a Disney film-set, which has been left to rot in Turkey's recession.
The stunning black-capped white villas rise in a valley beneath hillsides covered in pines, like miniature Neuschwanstein Castles planted in the East.
The 732 villas in the Bolu region each cost around £400,000, but they stand empty after Turkey's economy took a dive last year.
The ambitious Burj Al Babas project was supposed to entice Arab buyers; rather than travel to Europe, they could have a Medieval castle in Turkey.
A barbed wire fence stands on the perimeter of the strange citadel which looks eerily quiet, with windows and doorways standing unfinished in the desolate countryside
The spires on the villas rise from the dirt on the bottom of the valley, standing like a grotesque, deconstructed Neuschwanstein Castle of the East
Hundreds of houses in the Burj Al Babas project close to the town of Mudurnu in the Bolu region of northern Turkey
The stunning sweep of white and black-capped houses appears like something from Hollywood in the forests of rural Turkey
But the sprawling mass of unfinished dwellings stand as a totem of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's failure to overcome his country's economic situation.
After years of growth the economy took an unexpected downturn, AFP reported, with many economists predicting a recession for the country in 2019.
The Sarot Group, whose project it was to build the mass of homes, as well as a modern shopping mall, have filed for bankruptcy.
The identical castles were designed with buyers from the Gulf in mind, but after a downturn in oil prices many of them defaulted on payments
Hundreds of little castles are stacked beside each other, rising from the valley where they have been left to rot in the Bolu region
As part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project a modern shopping mall was to be incorporated to cater to the needs of the thousands of residents
The neo-gothic style mimics the Medieval architectural style of Western Europe, a strange and ambitious project which has collapsed
Investors in the Gulf defaulted on payments due to dropping oil prices which has left the developers £78m short, after they managed to flog around half of the little castles.
The stunning development is emblematic of many less spectacular builds across Turkey which have been left to rot as the economy falters.
Turkey suffered a currency crisis in August during a diplomatic spat with the United States over the detention of an American pastor, later released, as well as concerns over domestic monetary policy.
The project to build 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - encountered difficulties as Sarot Group applied for bankruptcy protection
Sarot Group's deputy chairman, Mezher Yerdelen, said the villas are worth around £400,000 each and his company has been left £78m short
Erdogan has railed against high interest rates, describing them as the 'mother and father of all evil'.
At one point during the US-Turkey row, the lira traded to lows around seven against the dollar.
But after the lira's dramatic fall in the summer, the bank made an aggressive rate hike in September of 625 basis points (6.25 percentage points) to 24 percent.
Despite legal battles over whether the Sarot Group can still sell the villas, their deputy chairman Mezher Yerdelen told AFP he expects it will be completed in October this year.
