Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest developer, has secured USD 500 million in financing from a consortium of banks to be used to fund an upcoming project in Turkey.

The facility signed with lenders including Standard Chartered, Emirates NBD and HSBC will finance Emaar Square, the firm’s second mixed use development in Turkey. The facility will be repaid over the next 7 years.

The 73,000 square meters Emaar Square project, located in Istanbul, will include 1,000 luxury homes, an 180 room five star hotel, the country’s largest shopping mall, as well as offices and a range of other leisure facilities.

Mr Mohamed Alabbar chairman of Emaar chairman in a statement said that “With the current positive growth outlook of Emaar in all its key markets, we are exploring new opportunities to strengthen our project portfolio and create long-term value for our stakeholders.”

Mr Alabbar said that “Turkey is one of our key markets, where we have successfully handed over homes in the first phase of our first integrated community, Tuscan Valley, and we are now developing Emaar Square in Istanbul that will further contribute to the country’s socio-economic growth.”

Emaar, which built the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa, earlier this month announced the first project for Mohammed Bin Rashid City, a huge mega development that will be constructed on the outskirts of Dubai.