Building permits up 11% in June

David Crowther
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Building permits up 11% in June

THE NUMBER of building permits authorised in June 2014 stood at 463 compared with the 416 authorised in June last year; an increase of 11%, according to figures released by the Cyprus Statistical Service.

Compared to June 2013, the total area of these permits increased by 4% to 66,307 thousand square metres from 63,687, while their value increased 10% to €70.7 million from €64.6 million.

During June, building permits were issued for:

  • Residential buildings – 303 permits
  • Non-residential buildings – 108 permits
  • Civil engineering projects – 12 permits
  • Division of plots of land – 35 permits
  • Road construction – 5 permits

Building permits for new home construction

The 303 residential building permits authorised in June provided for the construction of 277 dwelling units comprising 131 single houses and 146 multiple housing units (such as apartments, semis, townhouses and other residential complexes).

This is an increase of 41% compared with June 2013 when building permits were issued for the construction of 197 new homes.

Cyprus building permits June 2014Year to date

During the first half of 2014, a total of 2,560 building permits were authorised; a fall of 5% compared to the 2,701 permits authorised during the same period last year. The total value of these permits has fallen by 33%, while their total area has also fallen by 33%.

Building permits by district

Nicosia – the number of authorised building permits fell to 967 from 977 in the first half of 2013; their total value fell to €135.62 million from €196.07 million, while the construction of new residential units fell to 395 from 676.

Limassol – the number of authorised building permits fell to 642 from 714 in the first half of 2013; their total value fell to €107.68 million from €152.03 million, while the construction of new residential units fell to 321 from 475.

Larnaca – the number of authorised building permits fell to 366 from 395 in the first half of 2013; their total value fell to €89.09 million from €165.05 million, while the construction of new residential units fell to 193 from 310.

Famagusta – the number of authorised building permits fell to 120 from 177 in the first half of 2013; their total value fell to €19.18 million from €54.53 million, while the construction of new residential units fell to 57 from 361.

Paphos – in contrast to the other districts, the number of authorised building permits rose from 438 in the first half of 2013 to 465. However, their total value fell to €80.87 million from €81.41 million, while the construction of new residential units fell to 385 from 471.

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

EC rejects foreclosures laws

Nigel Howarth
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EC rejects foreclosures lawsTHE EUROPEAN Commission said today that the additional laws passed by the Parliament of Cyprus regarding foreclosures are not compatible with the requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

“The Commission will brief ministers at the Eurogroup on Friday on the latest state of play concerning the Cypriot economic adjustment programme”, European Commission spokesperson for economic and monetary affairs, Simon O’Connor said in his statement.

“While a detailed assessment is still ongoing, it appears clear that parts of the legislation voted through last Saturday, together with the foreclosures bill, are not compatible with the requirements of the MoU in this important policy area”.

“We remain in close contact with the Cypriot authorities on this matter and are looking forward to hearing from them how they plan to proceed”, he concluded.

The controversial foreclosures bill was passed by 47 votes at a plenary session of the house on Saturday.

Earlier today, President Anastasiades announced that four of the six bills voted by the House last Saturday limiting the scope of the foreclosures bill have been found to conflict with the constitution of Cyprus and have been referred to the Supreme Court for a ruling,

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail a former judge said: “The troika wanted us to enact a single law on foreclosures and be done with it, and we ended up churning out 14 bills. This is behaviour you’d expect from a Third World country. If you were a creditor, and the borrower was the one attaching strings, would you lend them money?”

Decision time in Aristo land deal probe

Constantinos Psillides
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Theodoros Aristodimou of Aristo Developers
Theodoros Aristodimou – Photo credit: paphosnet

POLICE investigators will have a meeting with representatives from the Attorney General’s office on Wednesday, to decide how to proceed over a suspect land deal in Paphos involving the well-known land development company Aristo Developers, a police source told the Cyprus Mail.

The meeting signals the conclusion of an AG probe on the deal. The AG’s office spent the last two months looking into whether any prosecutions were warranted, following an investigation on the matter by the police.

Aristo Developers is one the largest land development companies on the island.

The case involves allegations that Aristo, working together with people inside the Paphos municipality, arranged for a favourable deal when they filed for a permit to demarcate 177 plots in the Skali area of Paphos.

The application was approved, but according to the complaint filed to the police, it later emerged that new plans were added to the file and the previous ones had been annulled.

With the new plans, the company took back some 5,000 square metres, which had been previously earmarked as green areas.

The value of the land was estimated at €2 million.

The company denied any wrongdoing, saying the municipality got the calculations wrong. It claimed that the municipality had asked for new plans to be submitted and the discrepancy came about because the land area was bigger than what was recorded on the title deeds.

The changes in the demarcation of green areas were made at the behest of the water department to protect a stream.

Property developer jailed

Nigel Howarth
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Property developer jailed

Cyprus property developer jailedEARLIER today, the Famagusta District Court sentenced property developer Kypros Kyprianou to five years in jail on charges relating to forgery and theft.

Kyprianou, the owner of Famagusta Developers, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in March after being found guilty in a fraud case involving the double-selling of a maisonette near Paralimni lake in late 2006.

According to the Police, the court also imposed a fine of €6,000 on the company Famagusta Developers, which is in liquidation.

The court found Kyprianou guilty on numerous charges involving fraudulent transactions, forging documents, circulation of forged documents and theft by proxy.

The offences were committed between 2006 and 2009 which were investigated by the police following numerous complaints from Cypriots and foreigners who were duped.

The company’s office in Protaras was targeted by bombers twice in less than five months in 2010 and 2011.

In late 2011, an order was issued for the winding up of the company after it was deemed “unable to pay its debts” by the Famagusta District Court.

Kyprianou spent most of the 1990s in prison for fraud offences after his company, Kyprianou Estates, which operated throughout the 1980s, was reported for selling the same property twice.

He fled the island before the police investigation was complete but was arrested in Germany and extradited to Cyprus where he was jailed. He was released in 2000 and later went on to set up Famagusta Developers.

August property sales up 26 per cent

Nigel Howarth
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August property sales up 26 per cent

PROPERTY sales in Cyprus increased for the sixth consecutive month in August with sales increasing in most districts compared to August 2013.

During August a total of 335 contracts for the purchase of ‘immovable property’ (i.e. commercial and residential properties and land) were deposited at Land Registry offices across Cyprus; a 25.9% increase on the 266 contracts deposited during the same period last year.

However, the number of sales in Nicosia and Paphos declined compared to August last year, falling by 13.1% and 10.6% respectively.

Meanwhile, sales in Limassol more than doubled at 122.8%, while those in Larnaca and Famagusta rose by 35.0% and 8.7% respectively compared to August last year.

Cyprus property sales August 2014

Property sales (year to date)

During the first eight months of 2014 the number of properties sold reached 2,995; a 23.2% increase on the 2,399 sold during the first eight months of 2013.

With the exception of Paphos, where sales have fallen 2.3% compared to last year, sales have increased in all the other districts with sales in Limassol up 51.6%, sales in Famagusta up 40.1%, and sales in Larnaca and Nicosia up by 24.6% and 21.7% respectively.

Foreclosures law to Troika

Editorial
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Foreclosures law to Troika

Cyprus foreclosure law to TroikaCYPRUS President Nicos Anastasiades said on Sunday that he will hold talks with European leaders and officials over the content of legislative documents on foreclosures adopted on Saturday by the majority of the House of Representatives.

He also promised to review the amendments adopted by MPs “very seriously”.

He was replying to questions on the side-lines of the inauguration of a park in Germasogia, at the coastal city of Limassol, in honour of the 13 people who perished as a result of a deadly blast at the Evaggelos Florakis naval base, near Mari village, on July 11, 2011.

The House of Representatives approved during an extraordinary plenary on Saturday a bill on foreclosures together with a series of other bills, amendments and other legislative proposals tabled by the political parties.

Adoption of the bill constituted a precondition for the disbursement of the next tranche of the island’s €10 billion financial assistance programme. The approval or not of the disbursement of the next tranche of the Cypriot programme, is expected to be decided by a Eurogroup meeting next Friday.

Invited to comment on the fact that parliamentary parties have called on him not to refer any of the adopted documents back to parliament, he said that apart from thanking political parties for their responsible attitude, he wishes to assure that he will “review very seriously the amendments achieved in the separate bills and will fully respect everyone’s wish to protect vulnerable groups”.

At the same time, he announced that he is launching as of Monday “a round of intensive negotiations on a political level, so that before I decide, I will have the reaction or I can take into consideration the risks involved”, adding that through the way they handled things political parties have also tried to avoid such risks.

Asked with whom he will be holding the talks, President Anastasiades said that negotiations will take place with various leaders, whether they are called Barroso, Juncker, or Merkel or with any other leaders in order to achieve the approval of provisions which in essence do not alter the philosophy of the bill adopted.

That is to say, he explained, the fact that an anachronistic system which has been in place until today, has now been modernised and that at the same time vulnerable groups of citizens will be protected in view of the crisis and the austere measures adopted by the Troika.

Inaugurating the park the President thanked parties for their “responsible stance” in voting the bill on foreclosures and pledged that the government will do its utmost so that conditions which fully safeguard vulnerable groups of the population will be created.

In these difficult times for our country due to serious economic and political challenges we are faced with, we will have to find, as a people, the important elements uniting us, he pointed out.

“Unity and cooperation should be our beacon forward in order to deal with the diverse difficulties ahead”, President Anastasiades stressed, adding that this was also evident from the decisions parliament took yesterday.

Referring to the tragic blast of July 2011, he said that the “Park of Immortals” will remind everyone including the future generations, not only of the heroic sacrifice of the 13 people who lost their lives that fateful day but also of the accountability and the responsibility the state has vis-à-vis its citizens, for the benefit of who it has a responsibility to ensure conditions of prosperity, security and dignity and of preventing such tragedies from taking place.

– Cyprus News Agency

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