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28th March 2024
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Overseas Cyprus property sales rocket

Overseas Cyprus property sales rocketMAY saw the number of Cyprus property sales to the overseas market more than treble compared to May 2016 according to official figures published earlier today by the Department of Lands and Surveys.

Of the 756 contracts for the sale of immovable property that were deposited at Land Registry offices across Cyprus in May, 496 (65.6%) were deposited by Cypriot purchasers and 260 (34.4%) were deposited by overseas purchasers.

Overseas Cyprus property sales rocket

Property sales to the overseas (non-Cypriot) market during May 2017 rocketed by a massive 348% compared to May 2016.

Sales rose in all districts. In Famagusta, where not a single property was sold in May 2016, 11 properties were sold in May 2017.

Sales in Paphos rose 533%, while sales in Limassol rose 405%. Meanwhile overseas sales in Larnaca and Nicosia rose 330% and 7% respectively.

Overseas Property Sale Contracts – 2016/2017 Comparison

District Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Nicosia 2016 11
9
10
10 14 6 8 6 6 10 13 28
2017 9
4
6
18 15
Famagusta 2016 2 4 12
2
0
27
8 9 10 10 10 15
2017 1 2 16 6 11
Larnaca 2016 10 12 36
36
10
45
32 14 31 30 40 39
2017 25 20 28 20 43
Limassol 2016 24 21 52
44
19
60
64 28 53 68 53 125
2017 35 47 56 40 96
Paphos 2016 20 28 47
42
15
57 79 48 29 43 72 147
2017 23 40 80 43 95
Totals 2016 67 74 157
134
58
195
191 105 129 161 188 354
2017 93 113 186 127 260

During the first five months of 2017 the number of Cyprus property sales to the overseas market has risen 59% compared to the first five months of 2016.

Domestic property sales

Sales of Cyprus property to the domestic market in May rose by 19% compared to May 2016.

Although sales in Larnaca and Paphos fell by 18% and 16% respectively, they rose by 60% in Limassol, 51% in Nicosia and 13% in Nicosia.

Domestic Property Sale Contracts – 2016/2017 Comparison

District Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Nicosia 2016 43
70
10
69 68 92 94 58 75 70 73 116
2017 63 69
71
62
103
Famagusta 2016 20 31 21
33
24 7 19 32 22 37 9 72
2017 20 17 24 23 27
Larnaca 2016 68 96 85
91
93 75 91 67 90 81 74 114
2017 77 80 85 49 76
Limassol 2016 68 158 145
122
126 162 156 101 142 202 196 307
2017 97 130 176 152 202
Paphos 2016 61 72 59
65
105 126 74 88 98 83 111 171
2017 73 47 82 93 88
Totals 2016 260 427 382
380
416
462
434 346 427 473 463 780
2017 330 343 438
379 496

Property sales since 2000

Cyprus Property Sale Contracts 2000 – 2017

Year Overseas Sales Domestic Sales Percentage
Overseas Sales
Total
Sales
2000 450 12,214 3.6% 12,664
2001 1,207 12,849 8.6% 14,056
2002 2,548 14,111 15.3% 16,659
2003 3,981 15,294 20.7% 19,275
2004 5,384 11,947 31.1% 17,331
2005 6,485 10,106 39.1% 16,591
2006 8,355 8,598 49.3% 16,953
2007 11,281 9,964 53.1% 21,245
2008 6,636 8,031 45.2% 14,667
2009 1,761 6,409 21.6% 8,170
2010 2,030 6,568 23.6% 8,598
2011 1,652 5,366 23.5% 7,018
2012 1,476 4,793 23.5% 6,269
2013 1,017 2,750 27.0% 3,767
2014 1,193 3,334 26.4% 4,527
2015 1,349 3,603 27.2% 4,952
2016
1,813 5,250 25.7% 7,063
2017 (May) 781 1,986 28.2% 2,767
Totals
59,399 143,173 29.3% 202,572

Debt-to-asset swaps

We know that debt-to-asset swaps will be included in the numbers of domestic sales and although no official figures are available, the Greek language Phileleftheros newspaper published an article this morning, which reports:

  • Of the 535 properties that were put to auction, a mere 20 have been sold.
  • The Bank of Cyprus Real Estate Management Unit (REMU) took over property valued at €128 million during the first quarter of 2017 and at the 31st March 2017 had €1.4 billion worth of properties on its books.
  • The banks are now looking at different solutions to meet increasing requirements of the supervisory authorities to consolidate their balance sheets.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. May make the banks slightly more amenable to negotiating?

    Ed: You’ll need to speak with the relevant bank.

  2. Rocket figures last month do not maketh an entire year. If my maths are any good then it looks like we will be at slightly higher than 2012 total sales by the end of the year and still be down on last years totals…just.

    But as it’s been mentioned previously there are other explanations other than a months new sales in the monthly figures!

    Bottom line, fresh new sales or not at least its going in the right direction and in a market where confidence is one key to get housing and the economy motivated this is heading in the right direction.

Comments are closed.

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