TÜRKİYE Law and Practice Contributed by: Serkan Gül, Nazım O Kurt and Türkay Avanaş, Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership
2. Sale and Purchase 2.1 Categories of Property Rights Simple Freehold Ownership
introduced. The current regime under the Turk - ish Code of Obligations mostly aims to provide protection to tenants; however, such protection does not always fit office and shop leases, which often results in outcomes beyond its purpose. Based on sector reactions, the application of some “protective” provisions under the Turkish Code of Obligations have been postponed for eight years for merchants and private and pub - lic legal entities when the Turkish Code of Obli - gations came into force on 1 July 2012. As the eight-year period expired on 1 July 2020, these provisions have become applicable to merchants and private and public law entities. These provi - sions could also become burdensome on both tenants and lessees of workplaces. Lease agree - ments for shops in shopping centres in particu - lar require a more flexible, freedom-of-contract- based approach. An amendment providing such an approach would be appreciated by the real estate sector, but for the moment, there does not appear to be any such endeavour by the government. Nevertheless, certain associations representing investors of commercial properties still keep this issue on their agenda. Real Estate Sales to Foreigners Lastly, it would be beneficial to the Turkish real estate sector if houses sold to foreigners quali - fied as imports. This has been evaluated by the government on different occasions but has nev - er been realised. Property Tax Reform Suggestions To curb the inflation’s effect on the average consumer, the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye proposed a series of measures to pre - vent the rise in house prices and rent, including levying an additional tax based on the number of houses and unoccupied houses, but these proposals have yet to be presented before the parliament.
Under Turkish law, the most basic category of property right is simple freehold ownership ( mülkiyet ). Freehold ownership gives the prop - erty owner the right to use, benefit from, and dispose of a piece of property. These rights are conceptually separable from one another; more limited property rights can be created by carving out certain of these rights from simple freehold ownership. Leasehold Ownership Turkish law permits granting a third party the right to build on a piece of property ( üst hakkı ), and the holder of such a right becomes the owner of any structures that are built on this land in exercise of this right. If the right to build is intended to be independent and indefinite ( bağımsız ve sürekli ), then the holder of the right can register it in the land registry as a separate property interest, and this right is essentially treated no differently from Turkish law also recognises condominium own - ership, which allows independent units in a com - pleted structure to be owned separately from the main structure, with the common areas of the main structure remaining under joint ownership with the owners of the other independent units in the building. Usufruct/Servitude Right independent real estate. Condominium Ownership Under Turkish law, it is also possible to separate the right to use and to benefit from a piece of property from the right to disposal, and the com - plete right of use and benefit can be granted to a third party in what is called a usufruct/servitude right ( intifa/irtifak hakkı ). In a strict sense, usu -
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