Cyprus Villas: Beware

There are many advantages to buying a house or villa in Cyprus. They include reasonable prices, low taxes and conventional property acquisition procedures.

According to the laws of Cyprus, a foreigner can buy real estate in Cyprus, be it a flat, lots or a house on a lot (not exceeding 12,000 square meters), only once. The purchase of commercial real estate is only allowed in case the government considers it profitable for the development of the Cyprus economy. It is the ministry, where you will have to apply to receive permission to purchase real estate. However, it is easy to receive such permission, you just need to prove your ability to pay.
An undoubted advantage: you can buy real estate with confidence; in addition, if you decide to obtain credit in the banks of Cyprus, the rate will not exceed 5.5%.

However, there is a nuance in the case of Cyprus real estate. You should carefully track in which area of ​​Cyprus you are offered houses. The point is that the situation with real estate in the north of the island, where the government of the self-styled “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (no country accepted it, except Turkey), is complicated.

Over the last few years, the Cyprus government has won several lawsuits and awarded properties to foreign buyers in the northern part of the island. By the way, that property was sold illegally: it still has owners on the Greek side, they had to leave their homes after Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974. By the way, the Cyprus embassy has already warned foreigners not to buy real estate in this part of the country. However, there are still many advertisements for “real estate in North Cyprus” on the Internet.

If you do not want to prove the legality of the real estate that you legally bought, you had better avoid such advertisements. Thus, a famous case “Apostolides vs. Orams” has been going on for several years. In 2004, a court in Cyprus invalidated a British couple’s home on land formerly owned by a Greek Cypriot, marginalized from the occupied town of Lapito. The sentence contemplated the demolition of the improper constructions, the return of the free possession to the claimant and the payment of compensation. However, in early September, Orams avoided trial in a British court. And the court ruled in favor of a British couple. Now Apostolides promises to avoid it again, already in the International Court of Justice. And this time he will most likely win.