Jan 18th, 2019 : Turkey Bubble

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Sarot Group, real estate speculators in Turkey, planned and built 732 villas they wanted to sell to wealthy people from the Gulf area.
But they didn’t sell enough, probably because they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
One on a far hilltop might be cool, but 732 in a close together rows.

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage — hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairy tale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry — a key sector — as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.

Sarot Group filed for bankruptcy protection after some of their Gulf customers could not pay for the villas they had bought as part of the $200 million (175 million euros) project, Sarot's deputy chairman, Mezher Yerdelen, said. So far, $100 million has been spent on the project.
"Some of the sales had to be cancelled," Yerdelen told AFP, after the company sold 351 villas to Arab investors. The villas are worth between $400,000 and $500,000 each. They were designed with the Gulf buyers in mind, architect Yalcin Kocacalikoglu said.

I read elsewhere a judge has ruled against bankruptcy protection, saying nope, shut 'er down.
Looks like Turkey is in for a rough ride. Maybe because...



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