Conor O’Dwyer arrested outside AG’s office

Jonathan Shkurko
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Conor O’Dwyer arrested outside AG’s office

A British man who has been involved in a long and exhausting property dispute in Cyprus that lasted over 15 years, was arrested on Monday outside the attorney-general’s office in Nicosia, but was later released without charge.

Armed with a megaphone, Conor O’Dwyer was protesting the court’s failure to compensate him for the expenses he accumulated over the years when he was the witness and victim in an assault case brought against two developers in 2008.

According to O’Dwyer’s lawyer, Yiannos Georgiades, O’Dwyer was only offered €1,000 as compensation for his numerous journeys to Cyprus from the UK at the time. He also had to pay for his own accommodation, as well as his family’s.

“Conor has been protesting for days outside the Attorney-general’s office,” Georgiades told Cyprus Mail. “Today, he decided to step up his protest and moved to the main entrance of the building when police intervened and placed him under arrest, officially for blocking the attorney-general’s main entrance.”

Georgiades, who believes the arrest was a warning sign sent by the authorities, said O’Dwyer’s reasons to protest are absolutely justified.

“He spent thousands of euros travelling back and forth to Cyprus, as he had to appear in court several times. He eventually won the assault case, but nevertheless he was never properly compensated,” the attorney said.

Georgiades said he was also informed that the police are investigating Conor O’Dwyer for allegedly mocking the Supreme Court in 2019, when he was protesting outside the premises holding a placard reading “Kangaroo Court”.

Back in February, the Supreme Court rejected O’Dwyer’s defamation appeal. He had appealed the case filed by developer Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd accusing him of breach of contract and of defamation.

The Supreme Court also reaffirmed the initial €60,000 in damages to the company, a national record, for calling the developers ‘liars’ on his blog.

Around 15 years ago, O’Dwyer sold his house in the UK when he decided to buy property in Cyprus.

According to O’Dwyer, after having already paid €113,000 for the property in the Famagusta area, the developer decided to sell his house to another British family at a higher price.

He was then forced to rent a flat in London and undergo a lengthy legal battle with the developers.

Georgiades said O’Dwyer has no intention of stopping his fight for justice and confirmed that last week he filed a case against Cyprus in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Sharp rise in new homes construction

Nigel Howarth
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Sharp rise in new homes construction

There was a sharp rise in the number of building permits authorised in August for the construction of new homes according to official statistics released by the Cyprus Statistical Service.

In August 2020 a total of 523 building permits were authorised. The total value of these permits reached €192.1 million and the total area 147.6 thousand square metres.

The 523 permits were authorised for:

  • Residential buildings – 373
  • Non-residential buildings – 66
  • Community residences – 1
  • Civil engineering projects – 21
  • Division of plots of land – 52
  • Road construction – 10

Building permits for new homes

The 373 residential building permits authorised provided for the construction of 790 new homes. These comprised 311 single homes; an increase of 43.3% compared to the 217 authorised in the same period last year – and 479 multiple housing units including apartments, semis, townhouses and other residential complexes; an increase of 55.5% compared to the 208 authorised in August 2019.

Building Permits Issued for the Construction of New Homes
(Number of Dwellings)

Month 2019 (Dwellings) 2020 (Dwellings) Increase/Decrease %age Change
January 548 696 148 27.0%
February 576 680 104 18.1%
March 615 524 -91 -14.8%
April 742 339 -403 -54.3%
May 907 956 49 5.4%
June 812 976 470 20.2%
July 1,028 1,141
 113
 11.0%
August
 525
 790
 265
 50.5%
Totals 5,753 6,102 349 6.1%

Of those 790 new homes, 304 are destined for Limassol, 191 for Nicosia, 146 for Larnaca, 133 for Paphos and 16 for Famagusta.

Annual construction figures

A total of 4,416 building permits were authorised during the first eight months of 2020; a fall of 3.6% compared to 4,579 in the same period last year. Their total area fell by 7.2%, their total value fell by 19.1%. However, the number of permits authorised for the construction of new homes rose by 6.1%.

New home construction

The 3,228 residential building permits authorised during the period January to August 2020 provided for the construction of 6,102 new homes; 2,175 in Nicosia, 2,059 in Limassol, 784 in Larnaca, 707 in Paphos and 377 in Famagusta.

According to the Cyprus Statistical Service, building permits constitute a leading indicator of future activity in the construction sector.

Larnaca port & marina project gets green light

Gina Agapiou
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Larnaca port & marina project gets green light

Cabinet on Friday gave the green light for the signing of the contract for the redevelopment of Larnaca port and marina, a project estimated at €1 billion.

The project will be carried out over the next 15 years, starting in January 2021. It will include among others the expansion of the port and marina and the creation of space for social and cultural activities, hospital and educational centre as well as green areas and walkways.

Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said “the additional estimated financial benefits for the area, apart from the creation of new job opportunities, are expected to surpass €120 million annually after the completion of the project”.

The redevelopment was assigned to the consortium Eldeman Holding BV and Alexandrou Corprorate Services Ltd.

“The [transport] ministry will be present and a close collaborator in their long-term project,” Karousos said.

Plans for expanding and privatising the Larnaca marina have been plagued by years of delays and failure to find investors.

Back in 2010 the government struck a deal with Zenon Consortium for a €700 million project to transform both the existing port and marina. The consortium failed to raise the necessary funds even though the government extended the deadline up to 20 times until 2015 when the deal fell through.

Much of the blame then fell on the recession and the 2013 banking crisis.

Property sales top 1,000 in October

Nigel Howarth
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Property sales top 1,000 in October

Cyprus property sales rose 31 per cent in October compared to October 2019 according to the Department of Lands & Surveys, but we expect many sales are due to a last-minute rush of foreigners wishing to acquire Cypriot citizenship before Cyprus pulled the plug on its ‘golden passport’ scheme on 1st November in the wake of the revelations published by Al Jazeera.

In October 2020 a total of 1,064 contracts for the sale of property were deposited at Land Registry offices across the island compared to 813 in October 2019; an increase of 31%.

With the exception of Larnaca, where sales in October fell by 4%, the number of properties sold in the other four districts increased compared to the same month last year.

Limassol saw the sharpest rise, with sales up by 76%. (This isn’t too surprising as there are many hi-rise buildings under construction in the town targeted at well-heeled local and foreign property buyers.) Meanwhile, sales in Famagusta rose 60%, sales in Nicosia rose 24% and sales in Paphos rose 5%.

In terms of the actual number of sale contracts deposited, Limassol took first place with 402 followed by Nicosia (227), Paphos (202), Larnaca (153) and finally Famagusta with 80.

Total Property Sale Contracts – 2019/2020 Comparison

District Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Nicosia 2019 161 194 131 169 213 145 174 103 137 183 208 180
2020 197 178 139 38 100 178 251 157 195 227
Famagusta 2019 53 48 45 96 87 43 49 30 40 50 48 64
2020 50 47 41 10 28 56 60 39 59 80
Larnaca 2019 114 125 118 140 173 102 157 93 102 160 122 162
2020 147 118 106 24 59 109 131 87 117 153
Limassol 2019 251 256 287 428 546 219 286 196 240 228 296 284
2020 180 225 143 72 112 202 254 193 253 402
Paphos 2019 187 211 185 224 404 205 230 166 173 192 233 220
2020 168 171 81 72 120 101 129 85 162 202
Totals 2019 766 834 766 1057 1423 714 896 588 662 813 907 910
2020 742 739 510 216 419 646 825 561 786 1,064

Total property sales – year to date

In the first ten months of 2020 property sales are down by 24% compared to the same period in 2019.

While sales in Nicosia have risen slightly (3%) compared to the numbers sold during the same period last year, other districts have yet to return to 2019 levels.

Sales in Paphos are down 41% and sales are down 31% in Limassol, while sales in Larnaca and Famagusta and are down 18% and 13% respectively.

The Department of Lands and Surveys has yet to publish a breakdown of the figures showing domestic and foreign sales. We’ll bring you the figures as soon as they’re published.

Investors rush to meet citizenship deadline

Editorial
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Investors rush to meet citizenship deadline

Days before Cyprus’ Citizenship by Investment Programme is set to go offline, interior ministry officials and paralegals kicked things into high gear to handle the last batch of petitions by foreign investors before the programme ends on Sunday.

According to local media, government officials issued last-minute guidelines warning law firms and their paralegals that no citizenship petition from a foreign investor would be accepted if documents were not received in full by the November 1 deadline.

Reports said attorneys have been calling for flexibility, as many petitions were almost complete but folders were still missing official proof of a final transaction or certificate documents from abroad.

Hundreds of petitions on behalf of foreign investors are estimated to be hanging in the balance, with the government saying there would be no deadline extensions for incomplete case files.

Two weeks ago, the Republic of Cyprus announced that the Citizenship by Investment Programme would be abolished in its current format on November 1, following an emergency Cabinet meeting a day after Al Jazeera published a secret video alleging corruption in the island’s golden passport scheme.

According to local media, hundreds of citizenship request notices were published in newspapers over the last few days, suggesting a large number of applications were still in the pre-submission stage.

But government sources clarified this week that the number of newspaper notices did not automatically reflect the number of successful submissions.

Copies of two consecutive newspaper add clippings, that show an applicant has filed an application for naturalization, are required by law to be submitted as part of the application documents.

It remained to be seen how many applications would be both received as well as receipted by Sunday, while it was understood that incomplete petitions would not make the cut for Cyprus’ next batch of investor applications in the future.

Cyprus’ golden passport scheme officially ends this Sunday. It was not clear how many administrators would work overtime, but reports said the interior ministry has asked personnel to put in extra hours to accommodate any legitimate filings.

(This article was first published in KNEWS, the English edition of Kathimerini Cyprus,
on 29 October 2020.)

EU citizenship must not be for sale

Nigel Howarth
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EU citizenship must not be for sale

EU citizenship must not be for sale was the key message from European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, speaking at the European Parliament yesterday during the debate ‘Serious security threats through the sale of EU passports and visas to criminals‘.

Commissioner Reynders launched a scathing attack of the ‘golden passport’ schemes operated by Cyprus and Malta saying that such schemes have associated inherent risks of security, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.

The commissioner went on to say “While both Malta and Cyprus may have the intention to apply some changes to their investors citizenship schemes, they appear to be determined to continue their schemes in some form. We need to convince them not to do that.

“The Commission decided this week to open infringement proceedings against the investors citizenship schemes in Cyprus and Malta.

“The decision to naturalise a person by a member state is not limited to its own jurisdiction and is not natural with regard to other member states. Member states should therefore use their prerogatives to grant nationality with due regard to EU law and in particular to the principle of sincere cooperation which has led down in the treaties.

The Member States fails in that obligation when establishes a scheme with which a system technically grants naturalisation in the absence of any true link with the states and on the sole basis of a financial investment, or in other words, where our passports are for sale.”

A number of MEPs contributed to the citizenship debate:

Cypriot MEP Loukas Fourlas said that “Some people, though, are trying to negatively pay Cyprus and its people. We cannot forget the Turkish aggression in this situation.

“Obviously, we have to bring this to justice, those who are responsible. But we shouldn’t punish a whole people for this thing.”

Finish MEP Eero Heinaluoma noted that “Golden visas research shows that EU member states have attracted around 25 billion euros for investment over the last 10 years, thanks to the golden visa programmes. Investments are important, but so are our values. Today, even more than ever.

“The Cyprus leaks and the names it reveals are word of discussion. With enough criminal money, you can buy illegal entrants in the European Union.”

Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld spoke saying that “No golden passport, nor a gold visa scheme can ever really be clean and legitimate because due diligence that relies on cooperation with the Russian, the Chinese and the Saudi authorities, frankly, can never be watertight.

“In reality, they’re just a golden back-door into the European Union for criminals, criminals. It’s not investment. It’s criminal money. Now we need a full ban.”

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