Stalled off-plan property in Türkiye: What foreign buyers can claim when handover is overdue.

Turkish Consumer Protection Law (Law No. 6502)

Under the Turkish Law on the Protection of Consumers (Law No. 6502, Articles 40–46), residential property purchases by individuals are classified as prepaid residential housing sales (ön ödemeli konut satışı). The law places heavy statutory duties on developers:

• Mandatory delivery deadline: under TKHK art. 44/1, as amended by Law No. 7392 of 24 March 2022, a pre-paid dwelling must be delivered within the period promised in the contract and that period may not exceed forty-eight months from the contract date in any event. There is no separate, longer allowance for large projects. Delivery is also treated as made where the construction servitude (kat irtifakı) is registered in the consumer's name and possession is transferred.
• Building Completion Insurance / Bank Guarantee: Developers must secure insurance or provide adequate financial collateral before selling units off-plan.
• Right of Withdrawal: Buyers hold a statutory right to cancel contracts within 14 days without reason, and up to delivery date subject to statutory return deductions.

Are Unnotarized Developer Contracts Enforceable?

Under Turkish Civil Code (TMK art. 706) and the Notary Public Law, contracts promising the sale of real estate must strictly be executed before a Turkish Land Registry officer or in the form of an official notarized promise-to-sell deed (gayrimenkul satış vaadi sözleşmesi).

In practice, many foreign buyers signed informal contracts directly in the developer's sales office (adi yazılı sözleşme). Does this mean you lose your money? No.

A developer who has taken the buyer's money and performed in part is barred by the principle of good faith (dürüstlük kuralı, TMK art. 2), as the courts apply it, from claiming that its own contract is formally invalid. Courts order developers to either transfer the title deed or fully refund the purchase price adjusted for commercial default interest and currency inflation.

Option 1: Demanding Fair Market Rental Compensation (Emsal Kira)

If you still wish to retain ownership of the property once construction eventually finishes, you are entitled under TBK Article 125 to claim loss of rental income (emsal kira tazminatı) for every single month the property is delayed beyond the contractual handover date.

Court-appointed expert surveyors inspect market rental rates for comparable properties in the immediate neighborhood and compute cumulative losses, payable by the developer with legal interest.

Option 2: Withdrawing from the Contract and Recovering What You Paid

If the project is completely abandoned or the developer is insolvent, buyers can exercise their statutory right of rescission (sözleşmeden dönme) under Article 125 of the Turkish Code of Obligations. The court cancels the contract and orders the developer to return:

1. The instalments paid by the buyer. How much comes back depends on why the contract ends. Under TKHK art. 45/1 a consumer may withdraw from a pre-paid housing contract without giving a reason within twenty-four months of the contract date, but the seller may then claim the taxes, duties and similar legal charges arising from the sale, together with compensation of up to 2 per cent of the contract price in the first three months, 4 per cent between three and six months, 6 per cent between six and twelve months, and 8 per cent between twelve and twenty-four months. Under art. 45/2, by contrast, where the seller has not performed at all or has not performed properly, the seller may claim nothing from the consumer — which is the provision that matters in a stalled project. Under art. 45/3 sums due back must be returned within 180 days of the withdrawal notice reaching the seller.
2. Accrued statutory or commercial default interest from the date each payment was made.
3. Compensation for monetary depreciation under the principle of balancing justice (denkleştirici adalet).

Placing Injunctions on Developer Assets (İhtiyati Tedbir)

Where the court grants it, a precautionary injunction (İhtiyati Tedbir, HMK art. 389) annotated on the land registry can stop the developer from mortgaging or transferring the units it covers while the case runs. It is not automatic and not available as of right: an injunction under HMK art. 389 attaches to the subject matter of the dispute and requires the applicant to show that a delay would make the right significantly harder to realise or cause serious prejudice. Unsold units that are not themselves the subject of your claim will not ordinarily be tied up this way, which is one reason an annotation of a promise-to-sell against your own unit matters so much.

Protecting Your Position on the Title Register (Şerh)

A buyer's claim against a developer is a personal one, and a personal claim loses to a third party who buys the unit and registers first. The protection against that is an annotation on the title register: under Tapu Kanunu art. 26 and TMK art. 1009, a notarised promise-to-sell (taşınmaz satış vaadi) can be annotated (şerh) against the property, which makes the claim effective against subsequent acquirers. For an off-plan buyer this is usually the single most useful protective step, and it works best taken early rather than once the project is visibly in trouble.

The annotation does not last indefinitely. Under Tapu Kanunu art. 26 it can be removed by the registry where the sale has not been completed within five years of the annotation, so it may need to be renewed while a dispute runs.

Mandatory Mediation Before Suing (TKHK art. 73/A)

Consumer disputes cannot be taken straight to court. Under TKHK art. 73/A, applying to a mediator is a condition of bringing suit (dava şartı) in consumer cases within the jurisdiction of the consumer courts — a claim filed without it is dismissed on that ground alone, without the merits being reached. Disputes concerning rights in rem over immovables are outside the mediation requirement, so which of your claims fall inside it depends on how they are framed: a claim for the refund of money paid and a claim for the registration of title are not treated alike. The application can be made and conducted from abroad under a power of attorney.

Scope. This page is general information about Turkish law and procedure. It is not legal advice, it is not an assessment of your situation, and reading it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Statutory figures, thresholds and rates are revised periodically — check the current position before relying on any of them. Any particular case turns on its own documents and facts.

Frequently Asked Questions