FIGURES recently released by the Department of Lands and Surveys show that 1,316 property transfers took place at District Lands Offices throughout Cyprus during June; an increase of more than 100 on the number that took place in May.
Speaking with INBNews last week Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis noted that there is now the possibility of issuing Title Deeds at the rate of 1,200 a month and 25,000 annually by reducing cumbersome procedures and making the system faster.
So far this year, 6,213 transfers of property have taken place. These properties had a declared sale price of €953,715,113.69, which the District Lands Offices uplifted to an accepted price of €1,027,779,359.71; an increase of 7.8%.
Note however that there are still some 130,000 properties that have yet to be issued with Title Deeds and even at the rate of 25,000 a year, it’s going to take the Land Registry more than 5 years to clear the backlog – let alone deal with new applications.
I bet that the vast majority of people getting their TD’s now are Cypriots for when the deadline expires to lodge your claim they will then become compulsory.
Funny how things can suddenly ‘speed up’ when the government are strapped for cash!
I see the Land Offices are still up to their inflationary tricks ‘uplifting’ the sales prices.
If I ever – after twenty-one years – get offered my Title based on a spurious back-room ‘uplift’, then I’m afraid I shall tell them to keep it!
Am I misunderstanding Neoclis Sylikiotis’s statement? Is he actually equating 1,200 deeds per month with 25,000 per annum?
@frank – he’s the Minister of the Interior NOT the Minister of Finance :-) – Nigel
@Costas Apacket – Possibly, but the Department of Lands & Surveys doesn’t publish a breakdown of the numbers.
It would be interesting to know how many of these transfers were to Cypriots and how many to foreigners. Is this information available?