The Cyprus property market continues its recovery with sales to the domestic and EU market leading the way, but sales to non-EU citizens are not performing so well following the termination of Cyprus’ disgraced ‘Citizenship by Investment Scheme’ (a.k.a. Golden Passport.)
During June a total of 924 contracts for the purchase of real estate comprising residential, commercial, retail and land were deposited at Land Registry offices across the Republic; an increase of 43% on the June 2020 figure of 646.
If the trend continues during the second half of the year, we expect that annual sales will recover to their 2018 levels.
Domestic property sales
Property sales to the domestic market in June rose by 29% compared to the same month last year, encouraged by the government’s interest subsidy scheme and low interest rates.
However, the figures will include an unknown number of ‘non-sale’ agreements such as loan restructurings, recoveries and debt-to-asset swaps agreed between the banks and defaulting borrowers in efforts by the banks to reduce their non-performing loan portfolios. Unfortunately, the Department of Lands and Surveys does not publish these figures separately.
Foreign sales
Foreign sales also rose in June, up 75% compared to June 2020. But as Cyprus will be placed on the ECDC’s ‘Red List’ due to its escalating number of COVID-19 cases and the cancellation of the island’s ‘Golden Passport’ scheme, it’s going to take some time for the numbers to recover.
Cyprus property sales to EU citizens
Sales to EU nationals jumped 195% in June compared to June 2020 and are up 52% year-on-year. However, as mentioned above, as Cyprus is about to be placed on the ECDC’s ‘Red List’ it’s likely that potential foreign buyers will be dissuaded from visiting the island.
Cyprus property sales to non-EU citizens
Sales to non-EU citizens rose 28% in June compared to June 2020 but are down 28% year-on-year.
In terms of the number of property sales, Limassol is performing better than the other districts although year-on-year sales are down 12%.
Analysis of property sales since 2000
Cyprus Property Sale Contracts 2000 – 2021
| 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 | 2,406 | 6,328 | 27.5% | 8,734 |
| 20181 | 4,367 | 4,875 | 47.3% | 9,242 |
| 2019 | 4,482 | 5,884 | 43.2% | 10,366 |
| 2020 | 2,985 | 4,983 | 37.5% | 7,968 |
| 2021 (June) | 1,439 | 3,062 | 32.0% | 4,501 |
| Totals | 74,927 | 166,319 | 30.9% | 240,616 |
1 The Department of Lands & Surveys has advised that overseas sales in 2018 and subsequent year should not be compared to sales in previous years due to changes in the methodology used to classify ‘Aliens’ (foreigners).
