Cyprus property sales declined significantly as a result of COVID-19,as the pandemic caused the island's real estate market to be deeply frozen.
The pandemic affected almost all sectors of the island'seconomy and the global economy, which led to a slowdown in economic growthworldwide. Although some experts predict that the real estate market willrecover in 2021, many airlines around the world are planning their future. Onlyin the UK: British Airways plans to lose more than 1,100 pilots and seriouslyreduce its operations at Gatwick Airport through 12,000 layoffs. Easyjet plansto dramatically reduce its fleet and cancel the order for 107 new Airbusaircraft. Irish airline Ryanair plans to cut 3,000 jobs and warned thatpassenger demand and pricing will take at least two years to recover from thecoronavirus pandemic.
Since the Cyprus property market is heavily dependent onquality sales to well-established foreign investors, the market recovery in2021 seems somewhat “optimistic”.
In April, a total of 216 property purchase and saleagreements were concluded with the land department offices throughout theisland, compared with 1,057 delivered in April last year; drop by 80%. (Thelarge number of sales in April and May last year was due to the fact thatforeign investors were in a hurry to buy real estate before Cyprus introducedstricter criteria for those wishing to obtain citizenship as part of thegovernment’s Cyprus Investment Program.)
Not surprisingly, sales fell in all areas. Famagusta sufferedthe most, where sales fell 90%, followed by Limassol and Larnaca, where salesin both areas fell 83%. Meanwhile, sales in Nicosia and Paphos fell by 78% and68%, respectively.
In the first four months of 2020, Limassol remains the mostpopular among those who buy real estate.
To end on a more positive note, the government began agradual easing of blocking rules on Monday. Assuming that the incidence ratedoes not increase, further weakening will occur, which may help trigger arecovery in domestic sales.