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What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

Despite the difficulties in Turkey’s economy and the challenges in commercial real estate sector financial market building on our company and Gaziantep land that was owned by our company and a wholesale market thereon, has been sold at a price contributing significantly to company’s profitability. As the inhouse lawyer of the company, I managed, performed and closed entire legal process regarding the selling transaction.

An extension project regarding our company owned M1 Adana Shopping Centre was accomplished and I, starting from the project planning and tender process, participated all meetings and negotiations in relation to its construction, procurement and leasing agreements. The administrative difficulties in the course of process were eliminated by proving our right through the judiciary. After the project was completed, it received European Property Awards and Sign of the City awards.

Concerning the properties where our company is the lessee, we have filed requests of rent adjustment cases in the court because of having the rent increase beyond the affordable limits due to the excessive increases in exchange rates. If the courts decide to abate the rent amounts, our company will reap a significant benefit for the remaining 20-years of rent period.

What have been the major external trends that have impacted your team’s work over the past two years (market developments, changing regulatory environment, political events etc.)?

Rapidly increasing competition and concept change in the retail sector in the cities where our shopping centers are located made it necessary for us to transform our shopping Centers into living centers, experience areas and socialization centers and so to make investments in such direction.

Sudden and high increase in the exchange rate caused investments to be postponed or canceled completely. There has been a substantial decrease in the rental income of the lessors because of the decree and the related implementation communiqués enforcing making the payments in TL for 2 years regarding the contract amounts determined in foreign exchanges due to the fluctuations, for protecting the lessees who pay rent in foreign currencies.

Particularly due to the several changes in the land development legislation enforced at short intervals, it became unavoidable to suspend planned investments and to adapt the project development strategies and legal models to the new legislation.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how does the team intend to assist with this?

In the stagnant period in the real estate market, we plan to optimize our existing assets, bring our idle assets back to profit, and solve the issues of assets with problems in line with market conditions. We are not planning to make any investment in the next 12 months due to the strains in the economy, but we will prepare our development projects that we plan to start following the economic recovery by working on strategy and legal models. In such period, our legal team will work on asset optimizing models and solution methods for our assets with legal issues.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Members of legal profession should always approach their clients and business partners with a fair and objective legal understanding and find solutions. Business partners trust and respect the lawyers who defend the right, and polite, respectful personalities. It must be the priority of inhouse lawyers, to implement the legal methods and procedures justly while reaching to the targets of our companies.

What do you feel is the best way to get more women into in-house legal leadership positions?

The real estate sector is a male-dominant market and the imbalance between men and women is needed to be eliminated. It is necessary to ensure for men having the understanding that the men and women can be successful in every position in every field and they should get used to this idea. In performance and promotion evaluations, women should not be discriminated positively, but should be approached with an objective understanding of competence. Successful results that have been reached by the involvement of women in decision-making processes should be emphasized specially and introduced to others. Women should not be expected to behave like men, women should exist in their own nature and be able to focus on successful results in business life without falling into a career-family dilemma. As implemented in many countries in Europe, administrative and political authorities should recommend, require and encourage having women in corporate management. It must be proudly adopt the approach and understanding of “He for She & She for He”.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Technology is now determining the way people live in every aspect of our lives. Being able to access services and products rapidly has become very important, and this social perception has led to the reshaping the areas and spaces where people work and live. The real estate sector requires to provide people, homes, schools and work environments where they can meet all their needs in an “accessible” way. Shared offices, coworking spaces, shopping centers developed with the approach of “living spaces” are the new concepts and approaches created by changing and evolving human life. By the introduction of Industry 4.0, PropTech has become a trend in the real estate sector and smart buildings have started to turn into smart cities. Today, products and systems developed with artificial intelligent are used in real estate projects. All these technological changes have also an impact on the understanding of property ownership. The use of property, not the property itself, has come into the prominence. Such necessitates oblige the creation of new legal structures and the development of new legal models.

FOCUS ON: The Business Impact of the New Turkish Retail Law :

On January 29, 2015, Turkey enacted the Law No 6585 on Regulation of Retail Trade, regulating the establishment, operation and auditing of shopping centers, retail dealers, department stores, chain stores, artisans and craftsmen. The legislation has been on the agenda for a couple of years as the increasing number of shopping centers, department and chain stores have created competitive disadvantages for small traders (Article 3 of the Law).

Considering the mixed used projects where commercial and residential spaces to be developed on a single parcel and in case there are no separate building permit for each parts the building permit process  of such mixed use projects shall be carried out by the Metropolitan Municipalities, whereas the building permit procedures are carried out by the district municipalities as the related article of the new Law directly refers to Shopping Centers plus hypermarkets that are not defined as shopping centers in nature.

As the new Law obligates some allocation percentages and shopping center management activities, it has to be taken into consideration by the center management and leasing departments of the Center Management companies, and it also may lead new conceptual structures and approaches for the existing shopping centers while it has impacts on architectural planning as well as space planning.