YESTERDAY a delegation from the Board of the Cyprus Land and Building Developers Association (LBDA) and the Director General of the Cyprus Employers & Industrialists’ Federation (OEB) met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, Athanasios Orphanides.
They discussed various issues that fall within the remit of the Central Bank. The main issue concerned extending the boundaries, restructuring the loans and interest of land and property developers. LBDA President, Lakis Tofarides, said that the issue resulted from a severe reduction of liquidity within the industry due to the economic crisis and the fall in property sales; a situation that is likely to continue into next year.
Mr. Orphanides stressed that the Central Bank has no problem with restructuring loans providing that the businesses concerned remained solvent.
Among the recommendations made to bring an end to the crisis was to reduce purchasing costs by abolishing/reducing transfer fees and VAT; measures that have been taken in other European countries to help stimulate their property markets.
They also discussed concerns relating to the package of bills before the Parliamentary Committee to reform the laws relating to the thorny issue of Title Deeds. The Governor shared the view that the three types of Title Deeds would cause many problems in the market and would also deprive owners of their right to sell or mortgage those properties given an ‘incomplete title’ as a result of serious planning violations.