Buyer’s Guide to Cyprus
Published on 10 January 2006
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The Republic of Cyprus and The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have slightly different buying processes; we appreciate that those looking for information about buying property in North Cyprus may like to compare the costs and processes related to purchasing with the entire purchase process in south Cyprus.
Therefore this is our buyer’s guide to the Republic of Cyprus which you can compare with our previous article ’The Buying Process in North Cyprus‘ to find out how each side of Cyprus compares.
The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 and as a direct result the government has been forced to begin aligning its rules relating to foreign freehold ownership of real estate with those of all other European nations. To that end Cyprus will have to change the rules that currently only allow overseas purchasers to own a single property in Cyprus on land not exceeding 4000 square meters.
While the wheels slowly turn towards constitutional changes being made, unfortunately this ruling is still in place and anyone wanting to buy property in south Cyprus currently should be aware that they are limited to the purchase of a single property unless they form a Cyprus based company and acquire land and real estate via that company.
There are many English speaking developers and estate agents in Cyprus because the real estate market is so popular with British property buyers; therefore the entire buying process is really quite simple and straightforward. The first aspect is of course locating a suitable property; if the property chosen is a resale then an offer price should be submitted to the vendor via the estate agent. If the offer being made is conditional to various stipulations like the inclusion of furniture for example, this should be made clear.
At this point a buyer should secure the services of a solicitor in Cyprus who will conduct all the searches on the property and basically help with the buying process. Once the offer submitted is accepted by the person selling the property a small deposit is usually paid to take the property off the open market. At this stage the property buyer’s solicitor should begin title and land searches and draw up the purchase contract. As you generally only sign a single purchase contract in Cyprus the buyer should only sign it when all the checks have been conducted satisfactorily. The alternative is to sign a contract which is conditional to all searches being conducted satisfactorily.
When it comes to contract closure both the vendor and buyer will sign the contract which will be notarised and submitted to the land registry in Cyprus. Upon this date the purchase price will need to be paid unless the buyer has bought preconstruction and then according to the terms of the contract, various stage payments will need to be made for the property throughout the build process.
The buyer then has a month to make all taxation and fee payments and soon after signing the purchaser contract the buyer’s solicitor will apply to the Council of Ministers in Cyprus for the buyer’s right to own the property. This may sound back to front - shouldn’t the buyer have permission to own property before he buys the property? Well, because the application for permission is merely a formality 99% of the time and because the whole process can take many months it is always done after the buyer has actually purchased!
And finally, in terms of costs associated with buying property in Cyprus you should factor in 15% VAT, lawyers fees of around £2000, property transfer tax and stamp duty as well as local authority tax and immovable property tax.
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