Valentine’s day construction workers strike confirmed

Nigel Howarth
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8

CONSTRUCTION sector workers have announced that they will go on a 24 hour strike on Tuesday 14th February in a protest against what they believe is the violation by the majority of employers of collective agreements and labour laws.

On Tuesday morning workers will form picket lines outside their places of work and union offices, where they will sign a petition addressed to the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance and the Cyprus Federation of the Building Contractors Associations (OSEOK).

Striking workers will hold marches in all the towns.

Interior minister calls for amnesty submissions

Nigel Howarth
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9

SPEAKING at a press conference on the implementation progress of Town Planning Amnesty Neoclis Sylikiotis urged those whose properties suffer from planning infringements to submit Letter of Intent before the 7th April deadline.

Mr Sylikiotis warned that after the deadline the opportunity to legitimise planning infringements will cease and that legal action will be taken against those who continue to break the law. Filing a Statement of Intent is free of charge.

According to official figures 7,798 Statements of Intent have been submitted and those concerned have been sent a letter indicating the number to use when submitting their application.

To date, the Land Registry has received 1,058 Certificates of Approval:

  • 906 have been issued without notes and the properties will be issued with a ‘clean’ Title Deed.
  • 134 have been issued with notes detailing planning irregularities that will be recorded on the Title Deed of the relevant properties.
  • 18 have been issued with a Certificate of Unauthorised Works as the properties in question suffer from ‘significant’ planning infringements. This will result in a prohibition being placed on the Title that will prevent the affected property being sold, transferred, mortgaged, etc.

These Certificates will facilitate the registration of approximately 1,778 housing units; Title Deeds for 36 have already been issued – and the Land Registry in Larnaca is expected to issue 130 Title Deeds in the next few days for a large housing development..

Providing a Statement of Intent is submitted before 7th April, applicants will have until 7th October 2014 to apply for a Certificate of Final Completion for the building.

Fitch downgrades covered bonds of two Cyprus banks

Alan Lawton
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0

FITCH Ratings has downgraded Marfin Popular Bank (Marfin, ‘BB+’/Negative/’B’/) and Bank of Cyprus’s (BoC, ‘BB+’/ Negative/’B’) Cypriot covered bonds, as follows:

  • Marfin covered bonds (Programme I): downgraded to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’; maintained on Risk Watch Negative (RWN).
  • Marfin covered bonds (Programme II): downgraded to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’; RWN removed.
  • BoC covered bonds: downgraded to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’; maintained on RWN.

According to Fitch, the outstanding Cypriot covered bonds represent €4.2 billion of Fitch-rated debt on aggregate, including:

  • €2 billion of bonds issued by Marfin under Programme I (Greek mortgage pool),
  • €1.5 billion of covered bonds issued by Marfin under Programme II (Cypriot mortgage pool)
  • €700 million of covered bonds issued by BoC (Greek mortgage pool).

The covered bonds under all three programmes are issued under the Cypriot legal covered bond framework and regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus.

The rating actions follow the downgrade of Cyprus’ sovereign rating to ‘BBB-/ Negative’ from ‘BBB/RWN’ on 27 January 2012, and the subsequent downgrades of Marfin and BoC’s’ Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to ‘BB+/Negative’ on 2 February 2012.

Further reading

Fitch Downgrades Three Cypriot Covered Bonds

Property prices will continue to fall in 2012

Nigel Howarth
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3

A RECENT mini-poll conducted by the Cyprus Property News revealed that 70% of those who expressed an opinion believe that property prices will continue to fall during 2012.

Of the remainder, 19% believe that property prices will remain unchanged, while only 11% believe they will increase.

Cyprus Property Price Change in 2012 - Poll Results

This follows a presentation by Pavlos Loizou MRICS, details of which we published last month, in which he predicted that prices will continue to fall this year.

The government has introduced tax incentives in efforts to stimulate the market. These reduced the VAT on property for first-time buyers who are permanent residents of the Island and abolished/suspended Property Transfer Fees for a period of six months on the first sale of a property.

Depending on circumstances, these incentives could reduce the cost of owning a house or apartment priced at €250,000 by around €38,000.

Cyprus Government debt reached 67.5% in Q3 2011

Alan Lawton
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4

ACCORDING to a Eurostat news release, the Cyprus debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio reached 67.5% in the third quarter of 2011, compared with 59.9% in the same quarter of 2010; an increase of 7.6%.

Greece’s government debt reached 159.1% of GDP, having increased by 20.3%. Portugal’s government debt went up by 18.9% and reached 110.1% of GDP, while Ireland’s debt reached 104.9%.

The United Kingdom’s government debt was reported to have reached 85.2% of GDP in Q3 2011; an increase of 6.9% compared with the same quarter of 2010.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPSB503KFHU&w=470]

Eurostat figures show that the highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2011 were recorded in Greece (159.1%), Italy (119.6%), Portugal (110.1%) and Ireland (104.9%).

The lowest were recorded in Estonia (6.1%), Bulgaria (15.0%) and Luxembourg (18.5%).

Furthermore, the highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Hungary (+4.8 percentage points – pp), Greece (+4.4 pp) and Portugal (+3.6 pp).

The largest decreases in the ratio were recorded in Italy and Malta (both -1.6 pp) and Romania (-1.0 pp).

On the other hand, compared with the third quarter of 2010, the highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+20.3 pp), Portugal (+18.9 pp) and Ireland (+16.5 pp), while largest decreases were recorded in Sweden (-1.6 pp), Luxembourg (-1.4 pp) and Bulgaria (-0.9 pp).

Further reading

Eurostat newsrelease euroindicators 20/2012 – 6 February 2012

Saga of the Title Deed rip off in Paphos

Editorial
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10

IN ANSWER to the question; do the British see discrimination everywhere in Cyprus?

Last Friday my wife and I went to the Land Registry, finally after ten years we had been informed our Title Deeds were ready. When we bought in 2002 we had put enough aside for this cost, but with the value of sterling falling and the extra payments of IPT to the developer plus 9% interest the cost had exactly doubled.

Not the fault of the Government, but not ours either, but the delay was their fault.

When our turn came, we went in to be informed by ‘boss lady’ that she had valued our home at nearly half again of what we had paid. I asked to see the working out but my requests were ignored, again I asked how was the figure arrived at? Again there was no reply.

Well I said if this is based on today’s valuation the house is worth much less than we paid in 2002 so how have you got that sum?

After ten minutes of haggling it was obvious to me that this woman couldn’t and wouldn’t show me any evidence of this figure plucked from the air.

My wife was now distraught and began sobbing saying we can’t afford the deeds and we will have to sell I don’t want to lose my home but we can’t afford to own it.

People from surrounding offices came out to gawp at my wife, this was obviously what passed for entertainment; you have to wonder what gene pool these people were recruited from.

I asked to see the boss and was given detail of the boss in Nicosia. I phone the secretary for an appointment and we were about to leave when our developer arrived.

He could see the state of my wife and I explained to him what they wanted, the figure was beyond belief, several thousand Euros more than we should have to pay. He explained he would see the boss if I waited. But I said he’s in Nicosia I’m trying to arrange an appointment. No, he said, there are several levels in the building above her.

So I was being ‘Blocked’. Eventually a deal was made through him. I paid several hundred Euros more than I should but nowhere near what they were asking for.

What should have been a happy day for us, to finally get ownership of our house, I can’t wait to forget.

Don’t these people realise they may be getting extra Euros but they are killing the market?

But as the developer said that doesn’t bother them, here they are safe, they have a job for life. Less than a 100 metres from us is a development finished the year after we moved in, some occupied by Greek Cypriots.

They got their Title Deeds towards the end of 2011 and were asked to pay exactly what was shown in their Title Deeds. So you work it out.

Peter G Davis
Paphos

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