FIGURES released by the Department of Lands and Surveys earlier today show that 946 transfers of property took place at District Lands Offices throughout Cyprus during October.
So far this year 9,921 transfers have taken place compared with the 5,882 contracts for the purchase of property deposited at the District Lands Offices over the same period.
The Land Registry’s assessment of the market value of the properties transferred so far this year totalled € 1,622,910,450.07. This is an uplift of 7.8% on the price € 1,505,916,646.46 declared by vendors and purchasers.
It has been reported elsewhere that the number of transfers only accounts for one fifth of the total number of deeds issued by the Land Registry.
As well as residential property, such as houses and apartments, the transfers include land and commercial property.
(I received my Title Deed earlier this month, which had been updated by the Land Registry to include my house, almost eleven months after I filed the application).
I wonder how many were trading up or down?
If that is all new buyers from out side Cyprus then we have failed to reach people and educate/advise them of the fraud and corruption within the Cyprus property market.
With regard to the uplift on purchase price, my experience is as follows:- The Land registry added the 15% VAT to the purchase price prior to calculating duty, when I objected to paying Duty on a tax the young lady asked me if I had paid over the VAT (which in its-self was a silly question as she was aware that the property had been paid for in full) when I said yes she asked to see the receipt.
After returning to Kiti for the receipt and returning to show it to her at the Larnaca Land Registry, she removed the VAT element from the calculation. John
Dimitri
A very good point and one that should be considered.
Costas
This would not be an isolated case. I was in the running to purchase a house on a development in Prodromi (Polis) and it was the only house on the development of some 56 properties to have title. The original owner was a lawyer from Nicosia. Sadly the terrible build quality and being advertised (and priced) as a 3 bed when in fact it was a 2 bed with another bed stuck in the loft space accessed by a removable builders ladder made up our minds not to proceed.
Champagne prices for ginger beer products where luxury is defined as having an inside toilet!
Self build is the only way to go if you can put up with the bureaucracy, misinformation, delays and half truths and do not have a defined time-scale. It could take years.
My neighbour had her plot delineated in mid October, as I did. She has been waiting since 2004, me since May 2006. No rush then!
I reckon a no deeds no fee policy should apply to these architects who take up the job of getting your deeds.
One of the problems we have is that our ‘Architect’ who is actually registered with ETEK as a ‘Civil Engineer’ appears on the surface to be so laid back he’s almost horizontal.
Or that’s the way it seems for foreign owners on our development such as us Brits.
We have been waiting 7 years since our Contract of Sale was lodged with the District Planning Office and nearly 5 years since we paid our Developer in full for our property, but still we haven’t got our Title Deeds.
Despite this, it seems that our apparently ‘laid back Architect’ has, managed to obtain the Title Deeds for two of the properties on our development which are owned by a Cypriot friend of his, and who also happens to be a senior manager at one of the islands major banks.
This is despite the fact that these two properties were built and completed over 2 years after our property was completed.