A project to build hundreds of faux chateaux fit for royals in Turkey’s northern Bolu province has reportedly gone bust.

Builder Sarot Group, which was intending to sell the luxurious properties to wealthy Gulf investors, was slapped with a court-ordered bankruptcy ruling over the Burj Al Babas complex’s $27mn debt, Hurriyet reported on November 25.

The project deep in picturesque mountains was to include 732 chateau-style villas, swimming pools, Turkish baths, health and beauty centres, a shopping centre and a mosque.

Customers from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia snapped up 350 of the villas, according to the newspaper, at a going rate of $370,000 to $530,000. They specifically asked for the chateau-like design, according to the project’s consulting architect, Naci Yoruk. There has to be some risk that with sentiment among some Arab elites souring towards Turkey, given Ankara’s hard pursuit of Saudi Arabia over the Jamal Khashoggi consulate murder scandal, the project could suffer a further loss of obtainable earnings. Last week it was reported that pro-Riyadh-government Saudis were calling for boycotts of Turkish products on Twitter in response to the affair. Construction and property companies in Turkey are also under severe pressure given the painful economic adjustments the country is going through as a result of its currency crisis.

As regards the bankruptcy of the Burj Al Babas project, Sarot Group chairman Mehmet Emin Yerdelen was quoted as saying: “We couldn’t get around 7.5 million dollars receivables for the villas we have sold to Gulf countries. We applied for bankruptcy protection but the court ruling is for bankruptcy. We’ll appeal.”

The group completed 587 of the villas before applying for bankruptcy protection.

Yerdelen reportedly remained hopeful that the project would survive. He was also cited as saying: “The project is valued at $200 million. We only need to sell 100 villas to pay off our debt. I think we can get over this crisis in around four to five months and partly inaugurate the project in 2019.”