ACCORDING to Land Registry figures released last week, property sales in Cyprus continued to decline in November with a total of 444 contracts deposited at Land offices across the island compared with the 485 deposited in November 2011.
The annual decline in sales fell to 8 per cent – the lowest in recent months – helped by more properties being sold in Paphos and Larnaca than in November last year.
The Land Registry figures show that 165 properties were sold in Paphos, an increase of 42% compared to the 116 sold during November last year.
Speaking to StockWatch, property valuer Polys Kourousides said that “Chinese buyers are still interested in Paphos. Paphos is their first choice since in the past few months they bought properties of €150 -160 million”.
Property sales in Larnaca rose 10% to 68 in November from 62 last year. According to Mr Kourousides, Larnaca is the second choice for Chinese investors, while Egyptians are also showing an interest in the area due to the unsettling political developments in their country.
With the exception of Larnaca and Paphos, sales continued to fall in the rest of the island. Sales in Famagusta fell 38%, while in Limassol and Nicosia they fell by 35% and 21% respectively.
In the first 11 months of 2012 sales of properties have fallen by more than 9% compared to the same period last year with 5,774 contracts being deposited compared with the 6,387 deposited over the first 11 months of last year.
At the time of writing, the Land Registry has not published November’s sales statistics for overseas buyers; we will bring you this information as soon as it becomes available.
As I am purchasing products from China lately I wonder if they would be interested in an exchange deal. Who are they buying through agents in China or Cyprus. I have heard that Buy Sell are bragging about their Chinese sales book but I am not having a very successful time selling my places.