The build-for-share construction contract is the most decisive document in a renewal — and the one owners read least. What you paid for the flat stops mattering one day; the terms of this contract shape your life for years.
The eight clauses below are where the contracts we see in Küçükçekmece most often go wrong. Note that most of them are not something the contract says but something it omits.
1. The phrase "equivalent flat"
The three most dangerous words. If the units you are to receive are described as "equivalent", "comparable" or "of similar quality", then nothing has been described at all.
What it should say: each unit named by number, floor, aspect and net floor area. If the project design is not final, the contract should state explicitly that units will be numbered by supplementary protocol once it is, and submitted for the owner's approval.
In contracts signed on "equivalent", owners typically end up on the ground floor or the north aspect. Nobody promised otherwise in the contract — but nobody promised the opposite either.
2. An unsecured obligation
The contractor undertakes to complete the building. And if they do not?
What it should say: security backing the obligation — a mortgage over the land in the owner's favour, a bank guarantee, or a charge over the units due to the contractor.
Without security, if the contractor goes under or walks away, all you hold is a right to sue. Throughout the litigation your land sits under a half-finished structure.
3. A late penalty that does not deter
Most contracts contain a late-delivery penalty. The problem is rarely its existence but its size.
A token monthly penalty makes delay cheap for the contractor. The penalty should cover the rent the owner pays during that period — otherwise you are carrying the cost of the delay.
What it should say: a penalty tied to comparable local rents, accruing separately for each month, with either no cap or a reasonable one.
4. Assignment rights
If the contract allows the contractor to assign it to a third party, you have no guarantee about who you are dealing with.
You examine a contractor's references, completed projects and financial standing, then sign — and the contract is assigned to a company you have never heard of.
What it should say: assignment conditional on the owner's written consent.
5. Liability for the occupancy permit
Construction finishes, the flats are handed over — but no occupancy permit (iskan) has been obtained. In that case:
- A buyer cannot get a mortgage when you sell.
- Utility connections cause problems.
- Full ownership (kat mülkiyeti) cannot be established; you stay on construction servitude.
What it should say: the obligation to obtain the permit is expressly the contractor's, and handover counts only once the permit is issued. Otherwise the contractor can hand you the keys and treat the job as finished.
6. Communal areas and appurtenances left undefined
Parking, storage, shelter, terrace and garden use — if the contract does not say who they belong to, it is left to the contractor at the design stage.
In Küçükçekmece's dense neighbourhoods a parking space can be worth almost as much as the flat. In a neighbourhood at 50,000 people/km² such as Yeşilova or Sultanmurat, a flat without parking sells markedly below one with it.
What it should say: the appurtenances attaching to each unit — including the parking bay number — listed individually.
7. Materials and specification schedule
"First-class materials" means nothing.
What it should say: an attached specification schedule — which brand and grade for doors, windows, bathrooms, the boiler, the lift. Where a brand cannot be named, at minimum the technical specification and grade.
That schedule ends half the arguments that otherwise arise at handover.
8. Costs charged to the owner
Contracts sometimes carry a hidden line: part of the duties, taxes, utility connections, design and permit costs falls to the owner.
What it should say: which cost sits with whom, item by item. "All costs are the contractor's" is also sufficient — leaving it vague is not.
Pre-signature checklist
- Units defined by number, floor, aspect and net m²
- Security in place (mortgage / bank guarantee / charge)
- Late penalty covers comparable local rent
- Assignment conditional on the owner's written consent
- Occupancy-permit obligation on the contractor; handover tied to it
- Parking and appurtenances allocated per unit
- Specification schedule attached
- Costs allocated item by item
- Contractor's completed projects and financial standing examined
A closing note
This is a checklist, not a draft contract. Work with a lawyer before signing a build-for-share agreement — it is the cheapest money you will spend in the whole process.
We do not show any Küçükçekmece property with an existing build-for-share contract without having read the contract. As a buyer, what you are acquiring is not the flat but that agreement.