The restrictions introduced by the Chinese government toreduce outbound investment in real estate have yet to impact property salesaccording to the Cyprus Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Keve). In August, China introduced new rules onoverseas mergers and acquisitions, defining three investment categories:banned, restricted, and encouraged. Real estate was among the restrictedindustries and this raised fears in Cyprus that it would affect the nascentgrowth of the construction sector, which had taken a substantial hit in therun-up to the island’s bailout and after 2013. Keve secretary general MariosTsiakkis said no reduction in the sales has been seen following the Chinesedecision, which affects all countries. He said there was still a lot ofinterest from Chinese organisations to invest in Cyprus and a number ofpossible projects were being discussed. Those mainly concerned tourism and thecreation of investment funds that would use Cyprus as a base. Director of theisland’s investment promotion agency, Natasa Pilides, told the Cyprus NewsAgency there was no data showing a fall in sales but “it is something thatneeds to be explored so that there won’t be an impact in the future.” Pilidessaid the investment from China mostly entailed small sums of some €2m forcitizenships and it was not something that would make a huge impact. Propertydevelopers told the Greek language newspaper Phileleftheros that property salesto the Chinese sales are falling. This decline raises serious concerns as itmay result in the inability to sell properties being built for this for thiscategory of buyers. The newspaper also reported that several Chinese heardabout the impending restrictions and rushed to purchase before the restrictionscame into force.