Preliminary contract (agreement to contract)

Under Turkish law, a preliminary contract is an agreement by which the parties undertake to conclude a specific main contract in the future. Unlike the main contract, it does not create the principal obligations directly; it creates an obligation to contract. If one party refuses, the other may ask the court to order conclusion of the main contract.

The most common example is the notarised promise-to-sell agreement for real estate, by which parties bind themselves before the formal transfer at the land registry. Preliminary contracts are also frequent in construction projects and share transfers.

The validity of a preliminary contract depends on the form of the main contract: where the main contract requires an official form, the preliminary contract must satisfy the same form, a rule of particular importance in real estate transactions.