AT the present time it can take as much as five or six years for a land survey to be carried out – according to StockWatch some 26,000 cases have piled up at Land Registry offices throughout Cyprus.
Initially the Minister appointed 60 permanent staff in the hope that this would help clear the backlog of applications. Since then he has outsourced some of the surveying work to private individuals.
However, the volume of outstanding work is massive, and the Ministry has been forced to think of more radical solutions to the problem.
Interior Minister, Neoclis Sylikiotis told StockWatch that: “The number of pending cases is increasing year by year”.
According to figures obtained by StockWatch, the number of cases outstanding at the end of September stood at 25,975.
“I have assigned to the Land Registry the elaboration of a proposal, which will address to foreign firms – without excluding individuals from the Cyprus market – who will win via tenders a large number of land survey cases”, Mr. Silikiotis noted.
“Towards this direction, I have personally informed SEK (Cyprus Workers’ Confederation) and PEO (Pancyprian Federation of Labour), stating as a main argument the time required for each case’, he said.
“I believe that it is not fair for the citizens to wait 5-6 years for a land survey”, he added.
Mr. Sylikiotis explained that local land surveyors did not have the necessary experience and know-how to deal with such a large number of cases in such a short period of time.
According to official figures, 14,405 cases were pending in January 2005; by 2010 this number had risen to 24,238.