INFORMATION from the Central Bank submitted to parliament on Thursday show that properties not being sold at the first round of auctions is being bought by the banks.
Reports in the local media suggest that the banks bought:
- 219 properties during the first quarter of 2019.
- 149 during the fourth quarter of 2018.
- 129 in the third quarter.
- 85 in the second quarter.
- 65 in the first quarter.
The 219 properties bought by the banks during the first quarter of this year comprised: 183 fields, 11 plots of land, 7 commercial properties, 15 dwellings (ready or under construction), 2 main residences /apartments and one “Other Property”.
This seems to indicate that the foreclosure process is not having the desired result. Yet despite the apparent ineffectiveness of the process, EDEK wants to freeze all repossessions.
Information from the Central Bank also shows that the number of final notices sent by the banks fell to 602 in the first quarter of 2019 from 887 in the last quarter of 2018.
Notice letters sent relating to primary residences also fell to 39 in the first quarter of 2019 from 61 in the last quarter of 2018.
Approximately 5% of the properties for which final notices were issued were foreclosed in the first quarter of 2019. This compares to the 3.5% to 4% in previous quarters. But this marginal increase hasn’t changed the overall picture:
100 properties were sold at their first auction in the first quarter of 2019.
- 72 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
- 58 in the second quarter.
- 32 in the first quarter.
The 100 properties in the first quarter of 2019 are the maximum sold to date at first auctions during a quarter.
Janice
Yes totally agree with your sentiment, banks will never own up to any wrong doing. Banks consider we where intelligent enough to understand Swiss franc currency and mortgage jargon at contract stage and the banks thing we are all at fault.
We where duped into a mortgage sell by banks and today we are at the mercy of the banks to arrange a formula to restructure/reschedule our over inflated existing mortgages, hammered in all cases with previous high interest rates and manipulated swiss franc currency highs.
We are nestling very large losses and will never recover these losses, banks are at shame to allow this to happen in the first place, we do not work for banks or lawyers just hard working people who wanted something better out of life.
I think we all know that the banks were responsible for the inflated property prices back in 2007, with bank valuations well above real values, to support inflated mortgages, and thereby maximise commissions for the bank’s representatives, and backhanders from property agents.
Yet 12 years on, and the banks still have inflated ideas as to the real value of properties – and those they have repossessed.
This whole fiasco was caused by the inappropriate use of CHF ‘low interest’ mortgages, and subsequent increase in margins from 2% to 5% in contrast to other EU banks who cut their interest rates, without increasing margins.
Similarly, other EU banks used their own currencies and did not expose their borrowers to 40% exchange rate losses with foreign currency.
So any implied suggestion that this is somehow the fault of the borrowers, and that these borrowers in Cyprus are very bad people for not paying their mortgages is completely false. This debacle is entirely down to the policies and incompetence of the banks in Cyprus and Greece!
Banks should have been made to accept responsibility and compensate all those they screwed years ago, instead of this constant threat of repossession, loss of homes, and financial ruin for what is a third of all borrowers in Cyprus.