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28th March 2024
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HomeNewsApproval of primary home protection expected

Approval of primary home protection expected

Primary home protection schemeCYPRIOT authorities are expecting the European Commission’s “go ahead” scheme aiming at protecting insolvent households repay their mortgages for their primary home with an annual budget of €2m, after the Commission requested and received additional information, an official said.

“The questions raised by the European Commission were of procedural nature requesting clarifications which were answered on Wednesday and we expect that we will soon have the green light to implement this scheme,” Charalambos Petrides, chairman of the Cyprus Land Development Corporation said in a telephone interview on Friday. “The scheme aims at helping low earners who are really in need of it based on concrete criteria as they are risking losing their home”.

The scheme, which applies in cases of primary homes with a market value of up to €250,000 and maximum outstanding mortgage of up to €300,000 depending on the composition of affected families, provides for the application of “the same income standards which the CLDC applies,” Petrides added.

Beneficiaries of the scheme may have up to 60 per cent of their monthly mortgage instalment subsidised for up to three consecutive years, Petrides said, adding that the subsidy covers both interest and capital payments. Applicants are required to first exhaust the restructuring procedures before resorting to the Insolvency Service, the division of the Department of Company Registrar and Official Receiver. An appointed insolvency advisory may advise to apply for the scheme.

The support provided by the scheme, already approved by the cabinet last year, “is the last remaining rescue net offered by the Corporation” after applicants request via court order for “personal insolvency arrangements,” Petrides added.

He added that the scheme, which has a cap of €10,000 per year would be able to help more than 200 households which regularly serviced their loans before being affected by unemployment or a drop in income and will not apply to strategic defaulters.

The Cyprus Business Mail understands that authorities requested the opinion of the European Commission after the state-aid commissioner Theophanis Theophanous expressed reservations concerning the scheme’s compatibility with state aid legislation.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Indeed, these people do need help. Seriously, would we want to see whole families living on the streets?

    However, all these bitty things do not solve the problems in a country where the rich refuse to pay what they owe (mortgages, taxes, etc) and the Government seems to be at a loss as to how to get this money back. Why?

    Their golden opportunity (the so-called haircut) was lost when they could, in one swoop, have recouped all they needed to put the country back on its feet….I wonder why that was?

  2. I understand where you are coming from Anna, but I do think you are under-estimating not just the day-to-day corruption but also the ‘super corruption’ that actually created a whole halo of entrapment for thousands of buyers.

    Indigenous local Cypriots have been caught out before – on various dodgy energy-share schemes, but this was not as far reaching in the main as the great property scam – not even in the same league.

    No-one on this thread is as likely to be a tiny fraction as well off as the people who cooked this industrial sized scam up and benefitted from their enthusiastic participation.

    All I am saying is in finding an (eventual) resolution to it – let’s not throw the baby out and keep the bathwater.

  3. To John and other jealous people: I studied hard, got a degree, worked in a humdrum job for 40 years, and wound up with 2 pensions.

    Thank you Editor…It does not feel like a nice big pension and I don’t have a wealthy lifestyle. However there will be people reading this who think otherwise. I have enough for my needs, and so I am one of the lucky ones.

  4. Anna nice big pension if you need to pay tax.

    (Ed: You don’t need a big pension to pay tax – €19,500 p.a.)

  5. Nobody is squabbling. We all know about the corruption in Cyprus.

    This story concerns those unfortunate individuals who through no fault of their own find themselves unable to pay their mortgage. They are probably Cypriot. They now need help in order to keep a roof over their family’s heads. Most people would feel sympathy with them. I most certainly do. I have been extremely poor in my life, but always worked and never had to go on benefits. Now I am a bit better off and can afford a little sympathy with the poor.

    Peter Davis probably bought his home in Cyprus and is now regretting it. I don’t know whether it is his second home or his only home. Perhaps it is time for him to up sticks and go back to Britain. If he has no money he can apply for UK benefits which the rest of us will fund out of our taxes. I have no problem with that. If he needs help financially he should get it. My brother is on benefits in the UK and his car is only 12.

    I am a pensioner but still have to pay taxes on my pension. That’s life, like it or lump it.
    .

  6. Instead of squabbling amongst ourselves – we should be united against the principle architects who created this crisis and it’s (very) slow turnaround.

    A very large contingent of bankers, lawyers, officials, brokers and developers got together and scammed a load of people (who were outside of the deep-insider knowledge loop their ‘cartel’ enjoyed between themselves) into severe debt entrapment.

    It’s finding a fair & pragmatic solution to that where we must all aim. It’s the only way without a corrupt alternative that is too repugnant to even discuss at this stage.

    Hopefully this comment might get published this time…?

  7. I for one do not want to see any family losing their home because of their sad financial circumstances, especially if they have regularly paid their mortgage and then suffer a drop in income. These are not lazy people who have regularly defaulted.

    Peter Davis, we all pay taxes. The Government in Britain spends our taxes on things we may not approve of, such as foreign aid, Trident and other defence.

    Items, benefits to some unworthy individuals who may drink and smoke it away, schools when we may not have children, looking after sick old people in nursing homes, etc. etc.

    Many Brits own second homes in Cyprus, That is their right but also a privilege. They are probably better off that those the Cyprus Government want to help. They may not even have a 15 year old car. It is nobody’s fault that your car is an old banger. I am sure you would be first in line if the Government started giving out new cars…at taxpayers expense, and think yourself deserving.

    A home is a vital necessity. Don’t be a curmudgeon!

  8. Subsidised? Does that mean my taxes which I have to pay will be spent on supporting others to keep a roof over their heads?

    I feel sorry for anyone in a financial position but why should I support them? I have enough supporting myself, my family and all the MP’s with their fleet of cars, bodyguards and second and third pensions.

    My car 15 years old has nearly 150k on the clock and need replacing. Where do I get assistance?

    Never have I seen an Island so divided between the haves and have nots, with the haves working for the Government.

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