When a co-owner sells their share in a property to an outsider, the other co-owners do not have to accept the newcomer. The preemption right (şufa hakkı / önalım hakkı) gives them the power to step in, pay the same price, and acquire that share themselves. Understanding the two forms this right can take — and the strict deadlines for exercising it — is essential for anyone in co-ownership of real estate in Turkey.
Statutory vs Contractual Preemption
Statutory preemption arises automatically under Article 732 of the Turkish Civil Code whenever a share in co-owned land is sold to a third party. No land registry annotation is needed. The right belongs to every other co-owner by operation of law and requires no prior agreement.
Important limits: statutory preemption applies only to sales. It cannot be invoked when a share is transferred as a gift, contributed to a company in kind, or transferred by inheritance. A disguised gift structured as a sale cannot defeat the right, but proving the disguise falls on the party asserting it.
Contractual preemption is created by agreement and must be:
- Established by notarial deed or land registry registration
- Annotated in the land registry to be enforceable against good-faith third-party purchasers
- Limited in duration to a maximum of ten years
Without land registry annotation, the contractual right binds only the parties to the agreement. A subsequent buyer who acquires the property in good faith relying on the clean registry will take free of an unregistered contractual preemption.
Exercising the Right
The right-holder brings a preemption action before the civil court of first instance (asliye hukuk mahkemesi) serving the location of the property. Two deadlines apply, and both are absolute:
| Trigger | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Written notification of the sale by the seller | 3 months from notification |
| Date of sale registration in the land registry | 2 years from registration |
The earlier deadline to expire governs. A right-holder who is notified must act within three months regardless of how recently the sale was registered. Once either period expires, the right is permanently extinguished.
When filing, the claimant must deposit the full purchase price paid by the third-party buyer. The court will not proceed without this deposit.
Common Risks in Practice
Price misrepresentation: sellers occasionally declare a higher price to deter co-owners from exercising preemption. If the true price differs, the right-holder can assert the right at the actual price — but must prove the discrepancy, which can be difficult without documentary evidence.
Unregistered contractual right: a contractual preemption that is not annotated in the land registry is worthless against third parties. Anyone relying on an unregistered agreement discovers this too late, after a sale to an outsider has already been registered.
Failure to notify: where the seller does not formally notify the co-owners of the sale, the three-month period does not begin to run. The two-year period from registration remains available, but right-holders should monitor the land registry rather than wait passively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the preemption right when my co-owner gives their share as a gift? No. Statutory preemption applies only to sales. Gratuitous transfers — gifts, inheritance, contributions to companies — do not trigger the right. Where a transaction is structured as a sale but is actually a gift, the right may still be asserted, but the burden of proving the true nature of the transfer lies with the co-owner.
Do I need to have the full purchase price ready before filing? Yes. The court requires the claimant to deposit a sum equal to the price paid by the third-party buyer. If you cannot fund this deposit, the action cannot proceed. Planning ahead before a co-owner announces a sale is therefore important.
What if the seller never told me about the sale? If no formal notification was given, the three-month period never started. You have up to two years from the date the sale was registered in the land registry. You can query the land registry at any time to check whether a transfer has taken place.
Is the preemption right available for apartments in a building? Statutory preemption under Article 732 applies to undivided co-ownership (paylı mülkiyet). In buildings subject to the Condominium Law (where each apartment is independently owned), the right does not arise automatically. A contractual preemption may still be agreed and registered, subject to the ten-year limit.