SEPTEMBER saw a small rise of 1% in property sales compared to September 2018 according to official figures published by the Department of Lands and Surveys, with the total number of contracts deposited reaching 692.
Although property sales in Nicosia and Paphos rose by 16% and 14% respectively, they fell by of 16% in Larnaca, 11% in Famagusta and 4% Limassol.
Total Property Sale Contracts – 2018/2019 Comparison
| District | Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicosia | 2018 | 146 | 96 | 126 | 117 | 153 | 146 | 176 | 91 | 118 | 145 | 161 | 131 |
| 2019 | 161 | 194 | 131 | 169 | 213 | 145 | 174 | 103 | 137 | ||||
| Famagusta | 2018 | 48 | 52 | 40 | 52 | 79 | 61 | 61 | 50 | 45 | 57 | 47 | 48 |
| 2019 | 53 | 48 | 45 | 96 | 87 | 43 | 49 | 30 | 40 | ||||
| Larnaca | 2018 | 112 | 99 | 116 | 83 | 113 | 133 | 112 | 94 | 121 | 116 | 143 | 103 |
| 2019 | 114 | 125 | 118 | 140 | 173 | 102 | 157 | 93 | 102 | ||||
| Limassol | 2018 | 225 | 256 | 314 | 246 | 282 | 338 | 314 | 262 | 251 | 289 | 344 | 290 |
| 2019 | 251 | 256 | 287 | 428 | 546 | 219 | 286 | 196 | 240 | ||||
| Paphos | 2018 | 164 | 163 | 172 | 157 | 201 | 180 | 233 | 156 | 152 | 204 | 230 | 230 |
| 2019 | 187 | 211 | 185 | 224 | 404 | 205 | 230 | 166 | 173 | ||||
| Totals | 2018 | 695 | 666 | 768 | 655 | 828 | 858 | 896 | 653 | 687 | 811 | 925 | 800 |
| 2019 | 766 | 834 | 766 | 1057 | 1423 | 714 | 896 | 588 | 662 |
Property sales – year to date
During the first nine months of 2019, the number of sales has risen by 15% to reach 7,736 compared to 6,706 in the corresponding period last year.
In percentage terms, Paphos led the way with sales rising 26% to reach 1,985 compared with 1,578 in the first nine months of last year. The capital, Nicosia saw a 22% rise with sales reaching 1,427. Larnaca came next with sales up 22%.
Meanwhile Sales in Limassol and Famagusta rose by 9% and 1% respectively.
have risen by 27% and sales in Nicosia have risen by 23%. Meanwhile sales in sales in Larnaca have risen 19%, sales in Limassol have risen 10% and sales in Famagusta have risen by 2%. However, in terms of the total number of sales Limassol leads the way with 2,273 with Paphos in second place with 1,812 sales.
But the steady increase in property sales, which culminated in a massive 72% increase in May (the largest number sold in a single month since July 2008), seems to have run out of steam.
Total sales in June, July, August and September have fallen 7% compared to the same period last year. This fall could be due to more stringent conditions imposed on non-EU citizens seeking Cypriot citizenship under the revised Cyprus Investment Programme, which came into effect on 1st August. Time will tell.
@ Ed; thanks for your reply and look forward to the new statistics when you publish them.
Dee
It would appear that the stats on property sales have been forever violated by ‘golden visa’ purchases and are. therefore meaningless.
The info from the two different types of sale should be offered to the public separately; but we know that will never happen…
Ed: Hopefully foreign sales will be available next week and I can report sales to EU nationals and non-EU nationals + local sales and see how they’re trending.
As for citizenships, the number granted has been capped at 700/annum.