Property Market 2020. Results

For the Cyprus property market, the past year ended ambiguously.

On the one hand, the sharp drop in prices predicted by many, never happened. Despite the pandemic and the difficulties that the Cyprus property market had to overcome, housing prices on the island remain fairly stable.

According to the Department of Land Registrations, in 2020, 12,708 transactions for the sale of 14,663 real estate objects were made in the Republic of Cyprus for a total of 2.73 billion euros. This is 23.1% less than in 2019. However, it is worth noting that 2019 was the best year in terms of the number of transactions concluded over the past decade.

Nicosia became the leader in terms of sales. The capital of the island continues to show stable growth from year to year, despite external factors. The Nicosia real estate market is least dependent on sales to foreigners, which undoubtedly indicates the confidence of local residents in the real estate market of their country. Limassol came second in sales, followed by Paphos, Larnaca and the Free Territories of Famagusta in decreasing order.

On the other hand, the real estate market could not be affected by 2 main negative factors of the past year:

• 1. Corruption scandal and the subsequent closure of the program of granting citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus in exchange for investment.

• 2. Pandemic and closed borders for most countries of residence of potential investors.

The head of the Cyprus branch of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Thomas Dimopoulos, said that he is convinced that an accurate picture of how these factors affected property prices can be seen in one to two years.

It can be unambiguously argued, that 2020 will be remembered by realtors and developers as a year of an unprecedented increase in requests from clients permanently residing in Cyprus, as well as from investors who traditionally prefer to buy real estate during the crisis.

Note that low mortgage rates (the lowest in 20 years), the willingness of developers and property owners to discuss prices and discounts, as well as almost zero profit on deposits and the lack of alternative forms of investment, are very welcome to buy a home.