THE NUMBER of property sales in Cyprus during June rose 28 per cent compared to June 2016 according to official statistics published by the Department of Lands and Surveys earlier today.
This increase follows a 59% increase in May, a fall of 2% in April and a 16% increase in March
During June a total of 843 contracts for the sale of residential and commercial properties and land (building plots and fields) were deposited at Land Registry offices across Cyprus, compared with the 657 deposited in June 2016.
Of those 843 contracts, 635 (75%) were deposited by Cypriot purchasers and 208 (25%) were deposited by overseas purchasers.
Although the number of sales contracts in Larnaca fell by 20%, they rose in the remaining four districts.
Sales in Nicosia (the capital) rose 65% compared to June 2016, while sales in Limassol, Famagusta and Paphos rose 37%, 35% and 28% respectively.
Total Property Sale Contracts – 2016/2017 Comparison
District | Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nicosia | 2016 | 54 |
79 |
82 |
79 | 82 | 98 | 102 | 64 | 81 | 80 | 86 | 144 |
2017 | 72 | 73 | 79 | 80 | 118 | 162 | |||||||
Famagusta | 2016 | 22 |
35 | 33 |
35 |
24 | 34 |
27 | 41 | 32 | 47 | 19 | 87 |
2017 | 21 | 19 | 40 | 29 | 38 | 46 | |||||||
Larnaca | 2016 | 78 |
108 | 121 |
127 |
103 | 120 |
123 | 81 | 121 | 111 | 114 | 153 |
2017 | 102 | 100 | 113 | 69 | 119 | 96 | |||||||
Limassol | 2016 | 92 |
179 | 197 |
166 |
145 | 222 |
220 | 129 | 195 | 270 | 249 | 432 |
2017 | 132 | 177 | 232 | 192 | 298 | 304 | |||||||
Paphos | 2016 | 81 |
100 | 106 |
107 |
120 | 183 |
153 | 136 | 127 | 126 | 183 | 318 |
2017 | 96 | 87 | 162 | 136 | 183 | 235 | |||||||
Totals | 2016 | 327 |
501 | 539 |
514 |
474 | 657 |
625 | 451 | 556 | 634 | 651 | 1,134 |
2017 | 423 | 456 | 626 | 506 | 756 | 843 |
During the first half of 2017, sales contracts have risen 20% compared to the first half of 2016.
(An unknown number of property sales contracts relate to ‘non-sale’ agreements such as loan restructurings, recoveries and debt-to-asset swaps agreed between the banks and defaulting borrowers. These contracts inflate the total figures above and the domestic sales figures below.)
Domestic property sales
Property sales to the domestic (Cypriot) in June rose 37% compared to June 2016 with sales rising in all districts with the exception of Larnaca, where sales fell 7%.
Famagusta lead the way with sales up 343% compared to June 2016, followed by Nicosia (+63%), Limassol (+40%) and Paphos (+25%).
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 |
150 |
|||||||
Famagusta | 2016 | 20 | 31 | 21 |
33 |
24 | 7 | 19 | 32 | 22 | 37 | 9 | 72 |
2017 | 20 | 17 | 24 | 23 | 27 |
31 | |||||||
Larnaca | 2016 | 68 | 96 | 85 |
91 |
93 | 75 | 91 | 67 | 90 | 81 | 74 | 114 |
2017 | 77 | 80 | 85 | 49 | 76 |
70 | |||||||
Limassol | 2016 | 68 | 158 | 145 |
122 |
126 | 162 | 156 | 101 | 142 | 202 | 196 | 307 |
2017 | 97 | 130 | 176 | 152 | 202 |
227 | |||||||
Paphos | 2016 | 61 | 72 | 59 |
65 |
105 | 126 | 74 | 88 | 98 | 83 | 111 | 171 |
2017 | 73 | 47 | 82 | 93 | 88 |
157 | |||||||
Totals | 2016 | 260 | 427 | 382 |
380 |
416 |
462 |
434 | 346 | 427 | 473 | 463 | 780 |
2017 | 330 | 343 | 438 |
379 | 496 |
636 |
During the first half of 2017, domestic have risen 13% compared to the same period last year reaching a total of 2,621.
Overseas property sales
Property sales to the overseas (non-Cypriot) market during June 2017 rose 7% compared to the same month last year with 208 contracts of sale deposited compared with 195 in June 2016.
While sales in Nicosia and Famagusta fell by 44% and 42% respectively, they rose 100% in Nicosia, 37% in Paphos and 28% in Limassol.
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 | 12 | |||||||
Famagusta | 2016 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
2 |
0 |
27 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 15 |
2017 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 6 | 11 | 15 | |||||||
Larnaca | 2016 | 10 | 12 | 36 |
36 |
10 |
45 |
32 | 14 | 31 | 30 | 40 | 39 |
2017 | 25 | 20 | 28 | 20 | 43 | 26 | |||||||
Limassol | 2016 | 24 | 21 | 52 |
44 |
19 |
60 |
64 | 28 | 53 | 68 | 53 | 125 |
2017 | 35 | 47 | 56 | 40 | 96 | 77 | |||||||
Paphos | 2016 | 20 | 28 | 47 |
42 |
15 |
57 | 79 | 48 | 29 | 43 | 72 | 147 |
2017 | 23 | 40 | 80 | 43 | 95 | 78 | |||||||
Totals | 2016 | 67 | 74 | 157 |
134 |
58 |
195 |
191 | 105 | 129 | 161 | 188 | 354 |
2017 | 93 | 113 | 186 | 127 | 260 | 208 |
During the first half of 2017, property sales to the overseas market have risen 44% compared with the same period last year reaching a total of 208.
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 (Jun) | 989 | 2,621 | 27.4% | 3,610 |
Totals |
59,607 | 143,808 | 29.3% | 203,415 |
@sky – well I hear partly what you say – but I’d make two observations.
One – the Republic is trying to ‘attract’ Chinese & Middle Eastern investment throwing in citizenship & passports et al. In these cases – they may not all be simple debt 2 asset swaps, but opportunities for fresh investors bringing in new money from outside (of course – leaving that in the hands of the original unscrupulous legacy management is not in all cases helping of course).
Two – debt is a global problem & I’d need to see where you had sourced your data before being able to comment if Cypriot debt ratios were higher than anywhere else?
Thanks for the update below – appreciated.
My principle concern with restructuring banks balance sheets is all of the banks in the Republic following Hellenic Bank & selling off their debts.
If the original lenders mis-sold loans – presumably this has to sorted out through the court system before they sell them on? Either that – or whoever the loans get transferred to will have to run the risk they will have bought bad debt that cannot be realised?
Ed: I would expect that any organisation buying these bad loans will have checked to see whether any court actions were outstanding and that the bad loans were purchased at a discount as some of them will never be repaid.
@richard
For me it’s obvious…Cypriot households owe €1.2 BILLION which they can’t repay…(this amount is just the amount of NPLs, to which one has to add the future NPLs, and the loans made to people who can just barely pay them…).
Cyprus private debt/GDP ratio is the highest in the WORLD.
In a nutshell, this means the Cypriot people is BANKRUPTED.
And though, Cypriots “transactions” still make 3/4 of the market…come on…this is mainly debt to assets swap…obvious..
Thanks for sharing – but I feel you are right to call out the fact that an unknown number of these are tied up in loan restructuring or debt-asset swaps.
Is there any way of ascertaining what percentage of the total amount is? It would help knowing if an actual recovery is progress, or whether it is just ‘fiscal chess’ with property.
Ed: I did publish some information last month, but I don’t have any authoritative figures:
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 (12 June), 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.