At Arısoy Law, we provide legal support to domestic and foreign investors, family businesses, landowners, developers and contractors at every stage of their real estate investments. We act on residential, office, hotel, shopping centre, logistics and industrial properties. We handle acquisitions, structuring, project development, urban transformation and leasing across both their transactional and dispute dimensions.
We do not treat real estate transactions in isolation from their corporate, tax, zoning and financing aspects. We bring our experience in Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions and Debt Restructuring to our real estate work. We also work closely with architects, engineers, valuation experts and financial advisors.
The security of a real estate investment is often decided long before the title transfer, at the review stage. For foreign investors, there is one more question: through which person or entity should the property be acquired?
We represent buyers and sellers in acquisitions and disposals. We review the full legal status of the property, including land registry and cadastral records, zoning status, building permit and occupancy history, and encumbrances. We reflect our findings in the preliminary sale and sale agreements and complete the title transfer. With foreign investors, we determine the most suitable acquisition route at the very start of the investment. In doing so, we take into account the country and area restrictions that apply to foreign individuals, the acquisition conditions for companies with foreign capital, and the permit procedures for military and security zones. We also support industrial investors in acquiring land and facilities in organised industrial zones and free zones.
In large-scale real estate investments, the structure that holds the property matters as much as the property itself. That choice shapes the tax burden, management flexibility and exit options from the outset.
We advise on setting up special purpose vehicles (SPVs), on joint venture structures between investors, and on partnership models with landowners. We weigh the choice between an asset deal and a share deal together with its legal and tax consequences. In partnership agreements, we balance management, capital commitments, profit distribution and exit according to our client's long-term goals. We take the same approach with structures subject to capital markets regulation, such as real estate investment trusts (REITs). We also support family businesses in bringing their real estate assets together under a holding or a separate company. We carry out this work in close integration with our Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions practices.
Flat-for-land construction and revenue-sharing arrangements are the most common development models in Türkiye. They are also the ones that generate the most disputes, and most of those disputes stem from questions left unanswered at the contract stage.
We draft and negotiate flat-for-land construction, revenue-sharing and joint development agreements on behalf of landowners, contractors, developers and investors. In these agreements, we set out the allocation of independent units, the work schedule and delivery terms. We also structure sanctions for delay and security such as letters of guarantee and mortgages to protect our client's position and secure the project's completion. Whether a project can go ahead often depends on its zoning status. We therefore guide our clients through zoning plan amendments, building permits and permit processes, including environmental impact assessment (EIA), before the project begins. We then follow the permit and occupancy procedures throughout the project. Where a project is funded through construction loans or other sources, we make sure the loan and security structure is consistent with the project agreements.
Urban transformation is one of Türkiye's most pressing priorities for renewing building stock at risk of earthquakes, especially in Istanbul. Carried out under Law No. 6306 on the Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk, the process has administrative, contractual and technical dimensions. It also brings many stakeholders with different expectations to the same table.
We represent unit owners, contractors and investors in urban transformation projects. The process begins with the designation of a building as risky. At this administrative stage, we advise on holding unit owners' meetings in line with the procedure and on taking decisions properly, because a procedural error here can delay the entire project by months. We assess bids during contractor selection. We draft the transformation agreement to balance the rightholders' safeguards with the project's feasibility. Since the real purpose of urban transformation is safe buildings, we secure through the contract that the new building is constructed in line with the current earthquake regulations, that building inspection procedures are followed, and that the contractor's responsibilities for structural safety are clearly defined. We also manage the processes concerning stakeholders who do not join the agreement and applications against administrative acts. From a single building to block and parcel-based projects, our aim at every scale is to keep the process legally secure from start to finish.
Many properties in valuable locations remain idle for years because of unsettled inheritances, fractional title deeds with many co-owners, cadastral errors, zoning plan changes or expropriation. This problem is particularly common in family businesses that have built up real estate assets over generations.
We examine the full legal status of these properties and draw up a separate resolution roadmap for each one. Sometimes the solution lies in completing inheritance and transfer procedures and reaching agreement among co-owners. At other times, legal action is needed, such as partition actions, actions for cancellation and re-registration of title, or objections to cadastral determinations. We decide which route to take based on the intended use of the property and the balance among the co-owners. Our aim is not only to end the dispute, but to make the property saleable, developable and value-generating again. We continue to stand by our clients as the resolved property is turned into a project.
Commercial lease agreements involve long-term, high-value commitments for both landlords and tenants. The balance struck in the contract today must also withstand the economic conditions that emerge years later.
We represent landlords and tenants in leasing offices, retail units, shopping centres, warehouses and logistics facilities. We draft and negotiate long-term leases and shopping centre leases, and we provide the same support for build-to-suit leasing models. We structure rent increase and adjustment mechanisms, as well as alteration, subletting and assignment terms, to preserve the parties' commercial balance over the long term, and we register leases on the title deed. For foreign retail and logistics companies operating in Türkiye, we highlight at the contract stage where Turkish lease law differs from practice in their home countries.
Real estate disputes often involve high-value assets and long-standing relationships. A lawsuit filed at the wrong time can block a property for years instead of speeding up a resolution. That is why we first look at every dispute from the perspective of our client's commercial objective.
We represent our clients in disputes arising from flat-for-land construction and urban transformation agreements. We also act in claims for delay and incomplete or defective work, title cancellation and re-registration claims, rent determination and eviction proceedings, and expropriation and valuation processes. Before litigation, we assess opportunities for negotiation and settlement. In many lease, partition and condominium disputes, mediation is a mandatory precondition to litigation. We manage it not as a formality, but as a stage that strengthens our client's position. Where settlement is not reached, we conduct proceedings before civil and administrative courts and in arbitration. Where needed, we work with technical experts to challenge court-appointed expert and valuation reports. Our transactional experience helps us quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of a contract in a dispute. Our dispute experience, in turn, helps us anticipate risks when drafting new contracts.