SPEAKING to inCyprusproperty.com, Real estate appraisers and consultants Pavlos Loizou and Kyriakos Talattinis offered their thoughts on the Cyprus property market during the year ahead.
Both believe that interest shown in the overseas market will be maintained due to the possibility of non-EU citizens being able to acquire permanent residency and Cypriot citizenship.
However, property prices are expected to fall by as much as 15% depending on the type of the property and its location.
Pavlos Loizou considers that the number of property transactions will remain at last year’s level or increase slightly as the Cyprus economic situation improves. Increases will mainly be due to foreign investors interested in the possibility of obtaining permanent residency and Cypriot citizenship – and locals who have been holding back on their purchase until the political and economic instability of previous years subsides.
Mr Loizou anticipates that the price of residential property and larger pieces of land will fall between 5% and 10% depending on the type of property and its location.
Kyriakos Talattinis believes that the local market will be affected by a lack of liquidity and stricter lending criteria – and that the new laws and regulations on the disposal of property will all put a further downward pressure on capital values and prices.
He expects property prices to fall between 5% and 15% over the course of the year, depending on the type and location of the property.
Although some people do have the money to buy, they are waiting in the expectation that prices will be squeezed further when the banks start selling.
Mr Talattinis believes that there will be a continuing interest from overseas buyers due to the government’s residency and citizenship incentives. He does not expect overseas demand to fall and believes that beach-front properties and others in prime locations may possibly increase in value.
Who can dispute this opinion other than to say that the expectations of a 15% fall are conservative? The RoC economy is far, far from stable and I think will get even worse.
The political shenanigans around the EU bailout loans do not help.
The lure of an EU passport is a strong one but those with that kind of money ought to be shrewd enough to know when the right time is to buy property, if that is one of the conditions for citizenship, and now isn’t the time.
Buying a property abroad has lost it’s position as a dream thing to do especially with all the negative publicity, not just Cyprus. Austerity across the globe hasn’t helped and the glut of properties worldwide likewise.
@Nigel: stick to the Title, Nigel. There are too many ‘problems of the past’ to suggest anything other than further falls in property values. Yes, there are (a few) Buyers (mainly from ‘distant shores’) but the vast majority of ‘proceed-able’ buyers need to Beware…….
……Cyprus is a cesspit of property-related problems – Title (lack of), Weird Loans (incl Swiss Franc), Busted Economy (yes, struggling to recover but a LONG way to go), MASSIVE stock of empty, unsold properties PLUS thousands more unfinished properties, unbelievable ‘problems from the Past’, inferior build quality, unfinished developments, double-mortgaging of properties (Developers first, Purchasers – ‘sometime never’), absence of Title, I could go on but I won’t….
Who in their ‘Right Mind’, apart from perhaps long-distance Hopefuls?, is seriously going to buy, in current conditions, a Cyprus property at other than ‘bargain basement’ prices???
For my part I think the article (and title) are spot on although I would hope for a more dramatic fall in prices. It would be good to be able to pay a realistic price for a property, assuming the powers that be address the issue of unencumbered title at point of sale issue, as against the fantasy sale prices asked based presumably not on the properties worth but on what the previous owner paid or what the developer feels someone is stupid enough to pay.
For 11 years now we have looked at upward of 60 properties all but one of which were either misrepresented, without title or vastly inflated in price resulting in us forced to buy land and build our own but even the land purchase was not problem free and I speak the language and understand the system so what chance does a foreigner have.
The whole process is fraught with dangers and not to be taken lightly until all issues are addressed and legislation in place to protect buyers; anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you. I solved my issues my way, I wouldn’t expect anyone from overseas to be in any kind of position to do the same. Caveat Emptor.
The headline should have been “Foreign demand set to grow”.
too much negativity in your titles.
@Kent Sum on 2015/01/16 at 8:39 am – I suggest you complain to the author of the original article in Greek, which is entitled Fall of up to 15% in real estate prices in 2015.