A shared title deed in Turkey (hisseli tapu) records more than one owner on a single property, and in the usual form, co-ownership in shares (paylı mülkiyet), each owner holds an undivided fraction of the whole rather than a specific room, floor or plot; the share can be sold or mortgaged alone, but the other co-owners have a statutory right of first refusal when it is sold, and any co-owner can ask a court to end the co-ownership by partition or auction. This article explains what a share gives the buyer, which decisions need whose consent, how the pre-emption right and the partition lawsuit work, what changes when the property is inherited, and the checks a foreign buyer runs before paying for a share.
- A share is a fraction of the whole property, not a physical part of it, unless the building is divided into condominium units or the land has been formally partitioned.
- Sale of a share to an outsider triggers the other co-owners' statutory pre-emption right: three months from notarial notice, two years at the outside.
- Any co-owner can end the co-ownership by a partition lawsuit before the Civil Court of Peace; mediation is a precondition since September 2023.
- Inherited property is held in joint ownership without shares until converted; one heir can block a sale until then.
What a share on the title deed actually gives you
The Turkish Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu) recognises two forms of co-ownership. Co-ownership in shares is the form recorded on most shared title deeds: the Land Registry (Tapu Müdürlüğü) shows each owner with a fraction, such as 1/2 or 3/8, and each owner may use the whole property in proportion to that fraction, transfer the fraction, and encumber it with a mortgage. Joint ownership (elbirliği mülkiyeti) is the form that arises by operation of law among heirs who have not yet divided an estate and among partners of certain partnerships: the owners hold the property together without fractions, and no owner can dispose of anything alone. The title deed states which form applies, and the difference decides everything that follows.
The point that most share buyers miss is that a fraction does not correspond to a particular part of the property. A buyer of a 1/4 share in a four-storey building does not own a floor; a buyer of a 1/2 share in a plot does not own the half nearest the road. What the buyer owns is an undivided interest in the whole, and the right to use it in proportion to the share. Physical allocation exists only where the building has been divided into independent units under the Condominium Law (Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu), where the land has been subdivided into separate parcels, or where the co-owners have agreed a use arrangement. Co-owners often live for years under an informal arrangement, each using a flat or a strip of land, and the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) has given such long-standing de facto arrangements weight in some disputes, but the arrangement does not appear on the title and does not bind a buyer unless it has been registered.
In our practice the first question for a client who has been offered "a flat with a shared deed" is whether the seller holds a condominium unit, a fraction of a building without condominium status, or a fraction of land. The three are priced differently, financed differently and carry different risks. A fraction of land with an unlicensed building on it is the most common form in which foreign buyers are offered a shared deed at a low price, and it is the form in which the buyer's position is weakest. Our service page on real estate law in Turkey describes the title deed types in more detail.
Decisions among co-owners: who must consent to what
For co-ownership in shares, the Civil Code sets three levels of decision. Ordinary administration, such as routine repairs, payment of bills and the collection of rent that has already been agreed, may be carried out by any co-owner alone. Important administration, such as a change in the way the property is used, a lease of the whole property or major renovation, requires a double majority: a majority of the co-owners by number who also hold a majority of the shares. Extraordinary acts and dispositions, such as the sale of the whole property, the grant of a mortgage over the whole, or a change in the property's purpose, require all co-owners. Costs of administration and the expenses of the property are borne in proportion to the shares, and a co-owner who has paid more than that proportion may recover the excess from the others.
Each co-owner also holds rights that the majority cannot remove: the right to use and benefit from the property in proportion to the share, the right to take protective measures when the property is at risk, and the right to defend the property against third parties. Co-owners may regulate use and administration among themselves by agreement, and such an agreement, together with the decisions taken under it, can be annotated on the Land Registry record so that it binds anyone who later buys a share. Without the annotation, the agreement binds only those who signed it.
For joint ownership without shares, the rule is simpler and harsher: management and disposition require the agreement of all owners unless the law or the deed that created the joint ownership provides otherwise. Each owner may act alone only to protect the common rights. This is why the practical problems of shared deeds concentrate in inherited property, discussed below.
The statutory pre-emption right: the main risk for a share buyer
When a co-owner in shares sells the share to someone outside the co-ownership, every other co-owner has a statutory pre-emption right (yasal önalım hakkı): the right to take the share from the buyer at the same price and on the same terms. The right exists by law, needs no contract, and belongs to the other co-owners, so the seller and the buyer cannot exclude it between themselves. It does not arise where the share is sold to another co-owner, and it cannot be exercised in a forced sale by auction, whether in enforcement proceedings or in a partition sale ordered by the court.
The mechanics run as follows. The seller or the buyer notifies the sale to the other co-owners through a notary. Each co-owner then has three months from the notification to bring an action, and in any event the right lapses two years after the sale even if no notification was made. The action is brought before the Civil Court of First Instance (Asliye Hukuk Mahkemesi) of the place where the property lies, against the buyer. If the court finds the right established, it orders the claimant to deposit the purchase price and the buyer's registration costs within a period it sets, and on deposit the share is transferred to the claimant. The buyer recovers the price but loses the property and the time spent. In settled case law the courts have refused pre-emption claims brought in bad faith, for example where the co-owners had for years used physically separated parts of the property and the sold share corresponds to the seller's part; the outcome depends on the facts and is not something a buyer can rely on in advance.
For a buyer the protective steps are set before the money moves. In our files the standard set is: identify every co-owner from the current Land Registry record, not from the seller's description; obtain from each co-owner a notarised declaration that they waive the pre-emption right for this sale at this price, or, where that is not possible, have the seller give the notarial notice before closing and hold the price in escrow until the three-month period has run; record the agreed price accurately in the deed, because a price written lower than the real one invites a pre-emption claim at the lower figure; and check whether any co-owner is a minor, a ward or an estate, because consent then requires court involvement. Where the waivers cannot be obtained and the seller will not wait, the price should reflect the risk that the share is taken within three months of closing.
Inherited property: why one heir can block and how the block is lifted
When an owner dies, the property passes to the heirs as joint owners without shares. Until the estate is divided, no heir can sell a fraction, and every disposition of the property needs the signature of every heir. An heir who cannot be found, who is abroad and unresponsive, or who simply refuses, stops the sale of the whole. The heirs' first document is the certificate of inheritance (mirasçılık belgesi), which Turkish notaries issue in ordinary cases but cannot issue where there is a foreign element, so for a foreign deceased or foreign heirs the certificate is obtained from the Civil Court of Peace (Sulh Hukuk Mahkemesi), with the foreign civil status documents apostilled and translated by a sworn translator.
Three routes lift the block. The heirs may agree a division among themselves and record it at the Land Registry, which ends the joint ownership. Any single heir may apply to the Civil Court of Peace to convert the joint ownership into co-ownership in shares according to the inheritance fractions; the other heirs cannot prevent the conversion, and once the shares are recorded each heir can deal with their own share, subject to the pre-emption right. Or any heir may bring the partition lawsuit described in the next section, which ends the co-ownership for everyone. In our practice the conversion is the usual first step where the heirs want to keep the property but one of them wants to leave, and the partition lawsuit is the route where nobody wants to keep it. Our note on inheritance rights of foreigners in Turkey covers which law governs the estate and how foreign heirs are represented, and our service page on inheritance law in Turkey sets out the court procedure.
A foreign heir rarely needs to travel. A power of attorney issued before a notary abroad with an apostille, or before a Turkish consulate, and translated by a sworn translator, allows a lawyer in Turkey to apply for the certificate of inheritance, register the heirs at the Land Registry, apply for the conversion and, where needed, conduct the partition lawsuit. The documents that take longest are the foreign death certificate, the proof of kinship and, where the deceased was foreign, the evidence of the foreign law that governs movable property; the Turkish property itself is governed by Turkish law. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Ending the co-ownership: the partition lawsuit
Any co-owner may at any time demand that the co-ownership be ended, unless the co-owners have agreed in notarised form to keep it for a fixed period, which the law limits to ten years, or the demand comes at an unsuitable moment. If the co-owners cannot agree, the demanding co-owner brings a partition lawsuit (ortaklığın giderilmesi davası, still widely called izale-i şuyu) before the Civil Court of Peace of the place where the property lies. Since 1 September 2023 the parties must first attend mediation under the mediation law; a lawsuit filed without the mediator's final report is dismissed on procedural grounds and refiled after mediation ends. The procedure ordinarily runs as follows.
- Mediation. The applicant applies to the mediation office; the mediator invites all co-owners; if they agree on a sale, a buy-out or a division, the agreement is recorded and can be enforced; if not, the final report opens the way to court.
- Petition and parties. All co-owners are parties. Heirs who are not yet registered are identified through the certificate of inheritance. Co-owners abroad are served through the channels available for foreign service, which adds months.
- Expert report. The court appoints experts to value the property and to state whether it can be divided in kind, that is, into separate parcels or units of value proportionate to the shares, without an unreasonable loss of value. A single flat cannot be divided; a large plot of land sometimes can.
- Judgment. Where division in kind is possible, the court orders it and the Land Registry records the new parcels or units. Where it is not, the court orders sale by auction and the distribution of the proceeds in proportion to the shares.
- Auction. The sale is conducted by the court's sales office under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İcra ve İflas Kanunu), through the judicial electronic auction system, with a valuation that the parties may challenge within a short period. Any co-owner may bid. Under an amendment that entered into force on 31 July 2026, where all co-owners acquired the property by inheritance and no outsider holds a share, the first auction is held among the heirs alone and a bid must reach the full appraised value; if no heir buys, a second auction open to the public follows at half the appraised value. Auctions announced before that date follow the earlier rules.
- Distribution. After the sale costs, any secured debts on the shares and the court expenses, the proceeds are paid to the co-owners in proportion to their shares.
The timeline depends on the court, on service abroad, on the expert reports and on appeals; in our experience a contested partition ordinarily takes well over a year from filing to sale, and the mediation stage is the only part of the process that the parties can shorten by agreement. A co-owner who wants to keep the property is in a stronger position at the mediation table than at the auction, because the auction price is set by the market and the other bidders. Our note on mandatory mediation in Turkey describes the mediation stage.
Buying a share as a foreigner: Land Registry checks and limits
The co-ownership rules above apply to everyone. A foreign individual faces, in addition, the conditions of the Land Registry Law (Tapu Kanunu) on acquisition by foreigners, which the Land Registry Directorate applies at the transfer: the buyer's nationality must be among those for which acquisition is permitted by presidential decision; the property must not lie in a military forbidden zone, a military security zone or another restricted area, which the directorate checks against the zone records; the buyer's total holdings in Turkey may not exceed thirty hectares, a limit the President may double in individual cases; and the land held by foreigners in any district may not exceed ten percent of the area of that district that is open to private ownership. A share counts towards these limits in proportion to its fraction. A company incorporated in Turkey with foreign shareholders acquires real estate under separate rules tied to its registered field of activity, with an approval procedure before the provincial governorship where foreign shareholders hold the majority or control the company.
The standard document set for the transfer includes the buyer's passport with a notarised translation, the buyer's foreigner identity number or potential tax number, the current Land Registry record showing all co-owners and all annotations, the valuation report that the Land Registry requires for transfers to foreigners, the compulsory earthquake insurance policy, and, where the buyer acts through an attorney, a power of attorney issued abroad with an apostille or before a Turkish consulate. The transfer takes place at the Land Registry Directorate in the presence of the parties or their attorneys, with a sworn interpreter where the buyer does not speak Turkish, and the price is paid through the bank as the regulations require.
Before any of that, the due diligence on a shared deed asks a short list of questions that in our practice decides whether the purchase goes ahead: how many co-owners there are and whether any is an estate, a minor or a company; whether the form of co-ownership is in shares or joint; whether the building has condominium status or stands on undivided land, and whether it has a building licence and an occupancy permit; whether any share is mortgaged, attached by a creditor or subject to a registered use agreement; whether a partition lawsuit is already pending; and whether the price the seller wants reflects the fraction or a physical part that the seller does not own. Our note on buying property in Turkey covers the general transfer procedure, and our note on title deed fraud in Turkey covers the checks that catch forged or misdescribed deeds. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Mortgages, creditors, taxes and co-ownership agreements
A co-owner in shares may mortgage the share without the consent of the others; a joint owner without shares cannot. The mortgage attaches to the share alone, and on enforcement the lender sells the share, not the property. Because the market for fractions is thin, banks lend against a share reluctantly and at a discount, and most financing of shared property is structured as a loan to all co-owners secured on the whole. A creditor of one co-owner may attach and sell that co-owner's share; the other co-owners' shares are not affected, and although they cannot exercise the pre-emption right in the forced sale, they may bid at the auction like anyone else.
Annual property tax (emlak vergisi) is assessed by the municipality on each co-owner in proportion to the share, and each co-owner answers only for their own part. Rental income is attributed to the co-owners in proportion to their shares for income tax purposes whatever the arrangement for collecting it, and each co-owner declares their share, with the annual exemption for residential rent applied per taxpayer. On a sale, an individual who has held the share for at least five years pays no income tax on the gain; a shorter holding period brings the gain, after inflation adjustment, into the progressive income tax. Our note on real estate taxes in Turkey sets out the current figures.
Where co-owners intend to hold property together for years, a written co-ownership and use agreement prevents most of the disputes described above: who uses which part and when, how rent is collected and distributed, how costs are shared where use is unequal, how decisions on renovation are taken, how a co-owner who wants to leave offers the share to the others, and how disagreements are resolved. The parts of the agreement that concern use and administration can be annotated at the Land Registry and then bind later buyers of a share; the statutory right to demand partition can be suspended by agreement for at most ten years. Disputes over rights in the property itself are not arbitrable under Turkish law and belong to the courts; contractual claims between co-owners, such as accounting for rent or costs, can be submitted to arbitration if the agreement so provides.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a shared title deed (hisseli tapu) mean in Turkey? It means the property is owned by more than one person. In co-ownership in shares each owner holds an undivided fraction of the whole; in joint ownership, typical of inherited property, the owners hold the property together without fractions and must act unanimously.
- If I buy a 1/2 share, do I own half of the building? No. You own an undivided half interest in the whole property and the right to use it in proportion to your share. A specific flat or plot belongs to you only if the building has condominium units or the land has been formally divided.
- Can the other co-owners take the share I bought? Yes, by the statutory pre-emption right: within three months of the notarial notice of the sale, and at the latest two years after the sale, a co-owner may sue to take the share at the price you paid. Notarised waivers from each co-owner before closing remove the risk.
- Can I sell my share without the other co-owners' consent? In co-ownership in shares, yes, subject to the pre-emption right. In joint ownership, no; the joint ownership must first be converted into shares or the estate divided.
- How do I end a co-ownership when the others will not agree? By a partition lawsuit before the Civil Court of Peace, after mandatory mediation. The court divides the property in kind where possible and otherwise orders a sale by auction with the proceeds shared in proportion to the shares.
- What changed in 2026 for inherited property sold at auction? Where all co-owners are heirs and no outsider holds a share, the first auction is held among the heirs only and a bid must reach the full appraised value; if no heir buys, a public auction follows at half the appraised value.
- Can a foreigner buy a share in a Turkish property? Yes, on the same conditions that apply to any acquisition by a foreigner: permitted nationality, no military or security zone restriction, and the national and district area limits, with the share counted in proportion to its fraction.
- Can one co-owner mortgage the property? A co-owner in shares may mortgage only their own share. A mortgage over the whole property requires all co-owners. A joint owner without shares cannot mortgage anything alone.
Author: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu, Managing Partner, ER&GUN&ER Law Firm, Istanbul Bar No. 67874. He advises foreign buyers, co-owners and heirs on shared title deeds, pre-emption claims, partition lawsuits before the Civil Court of Peace and the acquisition of Turkish real estate by foreigners. Education: Istanbul University Faculty of Law (2018); Galatasaray University, LL.M. (2022).
Profile: Av. Mirkan Günay Topcu. LinkedIn: Profile. Istanbul Bar Association: Official website.