CONDOMINIUM LAW AS A HOUSING POLICY INSTRUMENT: MARKET-MAKING, HOUSING PRODUCTION AND TRADE-OFFS IN TURKEY

Abstract

This article addresses the gap in housing scholarship that often treats law as a background regulatory condition rather than as a policy instrument in its own right. Focusing on Turkey’s 1965 Condominium Ownership Law (COL), it examines how property law can reorganise the institutional basis of housing production and reconceptualises condominium law as a supply-shaping housing policy instrument rather than merely a framework for tenure or shared property. Drawing on legal texts, implementing provisions, policy and planning documents, and prior empirical research, the article develops a mechanism-oriented historical-institutional explanation rather than an econometric test of causal effects. The article argues that, under conditions of fragmented urban landownership, limited developer capital, and shallow formal housing finance, the coupling of registrable unit ownership and build-and-sell contracting based on land-share exchange made apartment production substantially more feasible. The COL thus helped scale multi-unit housing supply during rapid urbanisation, while also generating recurring trade-offs in densification, infrastructure stress, construction quality, and redevelopment governance where complementary institutions remained weak. More broadly, the article shows that condominium law can function as a market-making housing policy instrument under specific institutional conditions, with effects that depend on infrastructure finance, quality oversight, and renewal governance. By identifying the mechanisms through which property law reshapes housing production, the article contributes to comparative housing policy research. It suggests that similar legal instruments may play a supply-organising role in other contexts marked by fragmented landownership, limited formal finance, and small- or medium-scale housing production, while also requiring stronger complementary institutions to manage their urban and governance trade-offs.