Önalım Hakkı: The Co-Owner Who Can Take Your Share
Buy a share in a jointly owned Turkish property and the other co-owners may be able to take it from you through the courts. A reform in force since 25 December 2025 shortened the deadline and changed the price. Here is how the right of pre-emption actually works.
A right that is invisible on the deed and binding anyway
Most of the risks a foreign buyer runs in Turkey are written down somewhere. A mortgage appears in the annotations. A missing occupancy permit can be traced through the municipality. A zoning restriction shows up on the development status of the parcel. The right of pre-emption is different, and that is precisely what makes it dangerous: it attaches by operation of law, it does not need to be registered to exist, and the person who holds it is not the seller sitting opposite you.
The mechanism is set out in Article 732 of the Turkish Civil Code, Law No. 4721. In co-ownership, where a co-owner sells his share in the immovable, wholly or partly, to a third person, the other co-owners may exercise the right of pre-emption. Strip out the legal phrasing and it says this: if a property is owned in shares and one of those shareholders sells to an outsider, the remaining shareholders can step into the buyer’s place. They do it by suing the buyer, and if they succeed, the share is registered in their name instead.
In Turkish the right has two names that you will see used interchangeably. Önalım hakkı is the modern term; şufa hakkı is the older one, still in everyday use among lawyers and in court documents. They mean the same thing. English-language material usually calls it the right of pre-emption, or sometimes a right of first refusal, although that second translation is slightly misleading — it is not a right to be offered the share first, but a right to undo a sale that has already happened.
This matters more to foreign buyers than the volume of case law suggests, because shared titles cluster exactly where foreign money goes: inherited coastal land divided among siblings, village plots split between branches of a family, and development land assembled from several holdings. A share in such a parcel is often cheaper per square metre than a whole title, and the discount is not generosity. It is partly a reflection of the fact that the other shareholders can reverse the transaction.
Önalım Hakkı — At A Glance
The statutory right of pre-emption, as it stands today
How a pre-emption claim actually unfolds
Seven stages, from the moment a share changes hands to the moment the land register is amended. The deadlines in stages three and four are the ones that decide most cases.
A share is sold to someone outside the ownership group
The trigger is a sale, by one co-owner, of all or part of their share, to a third person. A sale between existing co-owners does not engage the right, because the buyer is not an outsider. The share is transferred at the Land Registry in the ordinary way and the buyer becomes a registered co-owner.
The sale is notified to the other co-owners through a notary
Article 733 provides that the sale made is notified to the other co-owners through a notary by the buyer or the seller. Either party can serve it. A buyer who wants certainty has every reason to make sure the notification is served promptly and properly, because it is what starts the shorter of the two clocks running.
The three-month period begins
The right lapses on the expiry of three months from the date on which the sale was notified to the right holder. A co-owner who receives a valid notarial notification and does nothing for three months loses the right against that sale. This is why the notification is a buyer’s tool as much as a seller’s obligation.
The one-year backstop runs in parallel
Independently of any notification, the right lapses in any event on the expiry of one year from the sale. If no notarial notice is ever served, this outer limit is what eventually closes the exposure. It was shortened from two years by Article 35 of Law No. 7571, and the shorter period applies only to sales made after that amendment took effect.
The co-owner sues the buyer
Article 734 is explicit that the right of pre-emption is exercised by bringing an action against the buyer. It is not a notice, a registration or an administrative objection; it is litigation, and the defendant is whoever now holds the share. The seller is not the target, which is why a buyer cannot simply hand the problem back.
The judge determines the market value and sets a deposit period
Under the amended Article 734, the market value of the share in dispute is determined by the judge without delay. The claimant must then deposit in cash that determined value together with the land registry expenses falling to the buyer, within the peremptory period given, at a place determined by the judge so that the money bears interest.
The register is amended, or the claim fails
If the deposit is not made within the peremptory period, registration of the share in the name of the pre-emption holder may not be decided and the buyer keeps the property. If it is made and the claim succeeds, the share is registered to the claimant and the deposited amount is paid, with its interest, to the person concerned once the judgment becomes final.
The December 2025 reform: a shorter clock and a different price
On 24 December 2025 the Turkish parliament passed Law No. 7571, published in the Official Gazette the following day. It is a broad amending statute touching several codes, and three of its articles rewrote the pre-emption regime in the Civil Code. If you are reading older English-language guidance on this subject — and most of what is online predates the reform — it is now wrong in at least two respects.
Article 35 shortened the outer deadline. The fourth paragraph of Civil Code Article 733 previously gave co-owners two years from the sale as an absolute backstop, regardless of whether anyone had notified them. That phrase was amended to read one year. The three-month period running from notarial notification was not disturbed, so the structure remains two deadlines in parallel: three months from notice, one year from the sale, whichever expires first.
Article 36 changed the amount the claimant must pay. This is the more consequential change. The second paragraph of Article 734 was replaced in full. The old rule tied the deposit to the sale price. The new rule requires the judge to determine the market value of the share in dispute, without delay, and the claimant to deposit that figure in cash along with the land registry expenses falling to the buyer.
Article 37 added a transitional provision and it does not treat the two changes alike. The amendments to Article 733 do not apply to sales made before the date the amendments entered into force; for those sales, the provisions prior to the amendment continue to apply. The amendments to Article 734, by contrast, also apply to actions brought before that date. In plain terms: the deadline change looks forward only, while the market-value rule reached into cases that were already running through the courts.
For a buyer, the net effect of the reform is mildly favourable. The window in which you can be sued is shorter, and if you are sued the sum returned to you reflects what the share is actually worth rather than what a deed happens to say. Neither change makes a share in a jointly owned property a straightforward thing to buy.
The pre-emption regime, old rule against new
What Law No. 7571 altered, what it left alone, and which sales each version applies to.
| Element | Before 25 December 2025 | Under Law No. 7571 |
|---|---|---|
| Outer deadline from the sale | Two years | One year |
| Deadline from notarial notice | Three months | Three months — unchanged |
| Who serves the notice | Buyer or seller, through a notary | Buyer or seller, through a notary — unchanged |
| Sum the claimant deposits | Based on the sale price | Market value determined by the judge |
| Who sets that figure | Taken from the transaction | The judge, without delay |
| Land registry expenses | Added to the deposit | Added to the deposit — unchanged |
| Deposit held | As directed by the court | At a place determined by the judge, bearing interest |
| Missing the deposit period | Claim cannot succeed | Registration to the claimant may not be decided |
| Compulsory auction sales | Excluded | Excluded |
| Law No. 2886 procurement sales | — | Expressly excluded |
| Applies to sales made earlier? | — | No — old deadline survives |
| Applies to pending court actions? | — | Yes, for the Article 734 changes |
Where the right bites, and where it does not
Six situations foreign buyers meet in practice, and what the Civil Code does with each.
A share on a hisseli tapu
The core case. Shared ownership, a share sold to an outsider, and every remaining co-owner holds the right. This is the transaction to approach with the most caution and the most documentation.
A flat with its own title
Under kat mülkiyeti each independent unit has its own title and its own owner. There are no co-owners of that unit, so no pre-emption right arises on a sale of it.
A share sold between co-owners
The right is engaged by a sale to a third person. Where an existing shareholder buys out another, the buyer is already inside the ownership group and the trigger is absent.
A property bought at auction
Article 733 states the right may not be exercised in sales by compulsory auction, or in sales within the scope of State Procurement Law No. 2886. Our guide to buying at auction in Turkey covers that route.
A sale disguised as a gift
Because the right follows sales, a transfer dressed up as something else is a predictable response to it. Turkish law has a doctrine for exactly this: see our explainer on muvazaa and sham transfers.
A contractual pre-emption right
Article 735 allows a pre-emption right to be created by contract and annotated on the register, binding every later owner. The annotation’s effect ends, in any event, ten years after it was made.
Four things worth doing before you transfer the money
Establish what kind of ownership you are buying into. This is a question about the register, not about the property. A share of a parcel and a whole independent title can look identical in a listing and in photographs. Pull the record and read it. If the entry shows a fractional share and names other holders, you are in pre-emption territory and everything below applies. Our guides to reading a Turkish title deed and to the difference between kat irtifakı and kat mülkiyeti set out what the different entries mean, and Web Tapu explains how the record can be inspected online.
Identify every other co-owner by name. Each of them is a potential claimant. On inherited rural land the list can be long and some of the holders may be abroad, unreachable, or deceased with the estate unsettled. That is not a reason to proceed on the basis that nobody will bother; it is a reason to understand how many people hold a right against you and for how long. Where an estate is unsettled, our note on inheritance law in Turkey explains who steps into a deceased shareholder’s position.
Deal with the waiver properly or not at all. A general waiver must be in official form and annotated in the land register. A renunciation limited to one particular sale is subject to written form and may be given before or after the sale. Verbal assurances, messages from an agent, and a seller’s confidence that the family is content are none of these things. If waivers are part of the deal, they should be in place, in the correct form, and verifiable on the register before completion — alongside the ordinary encumbrance check.
Serve the notarial notification, and keep proof. This is the step buyers most often leave to the seller and then forget about. The Civil Code allows either party to serve it, and the buyer is the one with the interest in the clock running. A properly served notice converts an open one-year exposure into a three-month one. Keep the notary’s record of service with the title documents.
None of this is exotic work, and none of it requires you to be in Turkey. It does require somebody independent to read the register before the money moves rather than after. If you are weighing up whether that justifies professional help, our note on whether you need a lawyer to buy property in Turkey sets out where the value sits. For the wider process, the Turkey property guides index collects the rest of our material for foreign buyers.
Buying a share in a jointly owned Turkish property?
We read the register, identify every co-owner and tell you what the pre-emption exposure actually is, before anything is signed.
Önalım hakkı — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign buyers ask most often about shared titles, deadlines and what a pre-emption claim costs them.
Where to go next
The rest of our title deed and due diligence library for foreign buyers in Turkey.
- Hisseli tapu — what a shared title deed in Turkey actually gives you.
- Takyidat — how to read the encumbrances registered against a title.
- Web Tapu — inspecting the land registry record online.
- Muvazaa — sham sales, and when a deed can be cancelled.
- Buying agricultural land — where shared rural titles are most common.
- Vasiyetname — making a Turkish will for your property.
- Selling property in Turkey — the process from the owner’s side.
- Turkey property guides — the full index for foreign buyers.
Have the register read before you commit
Tell us the property you are considering and we will establish whether the title is shared, who the other co-owners are, and what has to be in place before a transfer is safe. We work with licensed Turkish conveyancers, and every transaction settles through the secure payment system.
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