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29th March 2024
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How much do Title Deeds cost?

HOW much do Title Deeds cost? – the simple answer is €0.85 – and copies may be purchased from the District Lands Office in which the property is situated.

However, the question should be “what will it cost me to secure legal, undisputed ownership of a property?”

In Cyprus, and many other countries, those buying property are required to pay a government tax to secure legal, undisputed ownership of a property. In Cyprus this tax called ‘Property Transfer Fees’; in the UK it is called ‘Stamp Duty Land Tax’ (SDLT). In both countries the tax is payable each time a property is purchased – and it is paid by the buyer to the relevant government authority.

In Cyprus, Property Transfer Fees are based on the market value of a property at its date of sale, assuming that the stamped contract of sale was deposited at the relevant District Lands Office within the required timescale. The Fees are calculated on a sliding scale as follows:

3% – on the first € 85,430

5% – on the next € 85,430

8% – on the remainder

So for a home with a market value of €200,000, the Property Transfer Fees would be €9,165.59; for a home valued at €400,000, the Transfer Fees would be €25,165.59.

If a property is purchased in joint names (e.g. a husband and wife), the Property Transfer Fees are calculated as if they had each bought a property of half the value.

So, for a home valued at €200,000 bought in joint names, a couple would each pay €3,291.40 making the total Property Transfer Fees payable €6,582.80. If the couple bought a property valued at €400,000, their combined Transfer Fees would total €18,331.90.

Property Transfer Fees can be calculated online by visiting the Cyprus Department of Lands and Surveys – Transfer Fees Calculator.

Are Title Deeds worth the added expense?

MOST CERTAINLY! Some people tell me that they are not prepared to pay for their Title Deeds (as they put it). These people, in my opinion, are extremely foolish.

Why?

Because without paying the Property Transfer Fees to secure legal, undisputed ownership of a property you have purchased, you face several problems:

  • Once you have paid the Property Transfer Fees and the Title Deed to the property has been registered in your name, it is no longer owned by the developer. So if the development company fails and a firm of liquidators is appointed to sell off the company’s assets, they will not be able to throw you out of your home – or chase you for payment of the developer’s debts.
  • If, sometime in the future, you decide that you want to ‘purchase your deeds’, the vendor/property developer could make things difficult for you (remember that he will have been paying all the central and local government taxes that rightfully you should have been paying as he will still be the legal owner of the property). You may end up having to take legal advice and possibly get involved in expensive litigation to secure ownership your home.
  • Selling property in Cyprus at present is very difficult due to the state of the island’s economy, massive oversupply of unsold properties flooding the market, developer insolvencies, etc. Unless you have the Title Deed to the property you have purchased, finding a buyer will be even harder as the cat is out of the bag with regard to the widely publicised Title Deed-cum-fraud fiasco.
  • Then there are the troika’s proposals. As you may have read, the troika wants banks to maximize their recovery rates for non-performing loans and to seize property pledged as collateral against these loans and offer it for sale within 18 months. Although this may not affect you directly, it could push some developers into insolvency – and then you could be faced with the problem of dealing with the liquidator as I mentioned earlier.

If you want to sleep easy at night in absolute confidence that no-one can take your property away from you or chase you for money to keep it, pay your Property Transfer Fees as soon as you are notified that your Title Deeds are available and secure its legal, undisputed ownership.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. My wife and I got a land registry survey done to see if there was any encumbrances on our property. To our relief there are none. However they told us to speak to our developer and ask him as to what stage that he is at in breaking up our estate of thirty two (32) homes into separate plots.

    We thought that was done when we bought our house, cash. The architect of the estate who lives in the next village canvassed for house owners to pay him a fee to get things moving in regards to obtaining our title deeds. But unfortunately those of us who paid him aren’t being told what is involved.

    Our developer has suspended all building unless someone comes up with cash!! Nigel can you give us any idea of what should be going on and what questions we should be asking. As usual we appreciate your independent and impartial advice.

  2. The only snag is……….the Land Registry don’t go by the price on your Contract to work out the Transfer Tax; they usually add a few grand saying the property was worth ‘more’.

    This has happened to me, and also to one or two friends who were offered their Title Deeds.

  3. Worth mentioning here that if you have an ‘old’ (handwritten) Title Deed, you can for €1.61 get an impressive digitised copy from the Land Registry Office for your locality. You don’t need an appointment and it typically (using Larnaca as an example) takes 15-20 minutes to go right through the bureaucratic processes and come out with something that both looks and feels like an important document of real value.

    Ours even has a digitised map of the street, showing boundaries and buildings as they were at whatever the date of the last local Land Survey was carried out. Well worth the modest investment of Time and Money.

  4. How nice it would be for everyone to be told that their Title Deeds are ready. Sadly for many people that will not happen because their developer has an outstanding mortgage on the land. No doubt that same mortgage was never disclosed when the buyer entered into a contract.

    The Cyprus legal system and the Cyprus property market will reap what they have sown.

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