During May a total of 756 contracts for the sale of residential and commercial properties and land (building plots and fields) were deposited at Land Registry offices across Cyprus, compared with the 474 deposited in May 2016.
Some of this rise may be accounted for by a rush to buy before VAT is imposed on commercial sales of land.
We are also aware that an unknown number of these property sales contracts relate to ‘non-sale’ agreements such as loan restructurings, recoveries and debt-to-asset swaps agreed between the banks and defaulting borrowers.
Sales rose in all district compared with May. In percentage terms Limassol led the way with sales up 106%, followed by Famagusta, where sales rose by 58%. Meanwhile, sales in Paphos, Nicosia and Larnaca rose by 53%, 44% and 16% respectively.
Total Property Sale Contracts – 2016/2017 Comparison
| District | Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicosia | 2016 | 54 |
79 |
82 |
79 | 82 | 98 | 102 | 64 | 81 | 80 | 86 | 144 |
| 2017 | 72 | 73 | 79 | 80 | 118 | ||||||||
| Famagusta | 2016 | 22 |
35 | 33 |
35 |
24 | 34 |
27 | 41 | 32 | 47 | 19 | 87 |
| 2017 | 21 | 19 | 40 | 29 | 38 | ||||||||
| Larnaca | 2016 | 78 |
108 | 121 |
127 |
103 | 120 |
123 | 81 | 121 | 111 | 114 | 153 |
| 2017 | 102 | 100 | 113 | 69 | 119 | ||||||||
| Limassol | 2016 | 92 |
179 | 197 |
166 |
145 | 222 |
220 | 129 | 195 | 270 | 249 | 432 |
| 2017 | 132 | 177 | 232 | 192 | 298 | ||||||||
| Paphos | 2016 | 81 |
100 | 106 |
107 |
120 | 183 |
153 | 136 | 127 | 126 | 183 | 318 |
| 2017 | 96 | 87 | 162 | 136 | 183 | ||||||||
| Totals | 2016 | 327 |
501 | 539 |
514 |
474 | 657 |
625 | 451 | 556 | 634 | 651 | 1134 |
| 2017 | 423 | 456 | 626 | 506 | 756 |
During the first five months of 2016, property sales rose 17% compared with the same period in 2016.