ACCORDING to official statistics published by the Department of Lands and Surveys, property sales in 2014 recorded their first year-on-year increase since 2010, growing by 20 percent to reach 4,527 compared with 3,767 in 2013.
Of those 4,527 properties 3,334 were purchased by Cypriots while the remaining 1,193 were purchased by overseas buyers.
In an interview with StockWatch Solomon Kourouklides, the Vice Chairman of the Cyprus Real Estate Agents Association (CREAA) said “since banks are pushing people in terms of their loan obligations, property sales started in order to make arrangements. As for the developers, interest in property sales is now directed mainly to China”.
Speculating on 2015, Mr. Kourouklides believes that the increase in sales will continue at the level of 2014 due to pressures from the banks.
Property sales in Cyprus during 2013 were at their lowest since record began in 2000 and although property sales improved in 2014, they are still down by more than 64% on the numbers sold fourteen years ago and more than 78% down on the peak year of 2007.
Maybe the Cypriots are snapping up properties at knock down prices like the one we rented, the owner was asking £160k it went to Cypriots for £90k.
The Cypriots are banking on property reaching silly prices again.
Buy Sell are still asking silly prices.
@ Mike. will the real Slim shady please stand up. I have changed my name to Mike G. I used to post under another name but due to Cyprus related stress I have forgot it.
@ Nigel Brilliant explanation as usual but unfortunately its depressing. Suppose its better to be in reality. Now the question is will the Las Vegas resort boost prices? Hope its in Larnaca.
It would appear we have at least two of us Mike’s on the site. I am of the same opinion as Nigel, I do feel there is more falls in prices to go and in some areas/ developments massive drops to bring them in line with some sense of realistic pricing. No consolation for anyone having bought at the inflated price who wishes to sell on but a realistically priced property market is a precondition to assisting future prosperity.
Anyone got a crystal ball or an idea of what will happen to prices in the future and do you think the increase was due to the market bottoming out or something else?
@Mike on 2015/01/07 at 10:08 pm – If you look at the RICS Cyprus Property Price Index for Q3 2014, price falls seems to be slowing.
But if you read the section ‘Appraisal based initial yields’ is says “At the end of Q3 2014 average gross yields stood at 3.9% for apartments, 1.9% for houses, 5.2% for retail, 4.3% for warehouses, and 4.4% for offices. The parallel reduction in capital values and rents is keeping investment yields relatively stable and at very
low levels (compared to yields overseas). This suggests that there is still room for re-pricing of capital values to take place.“
So I expect we’ll see property prices continuing to fall.