Over the past week a number of news reports concerning property in Cyprus have appeared in the local media about non-performing loans (NPLs), recent property deals and the bank of Cyprus.
Increasing numbers of properties in Cyprus including homes, hotels and golf courses are being transferred to the Bank of Cyprus Real Estate Management Unit (REMU) by debt to asset swaps.
The Bank of Cyprus intends to sell about €20 million worth of restructured non-performing loans of developers and construction companies to a small Cypriot bank according to reports.
The Larnaca District Court has banned banks from foreclosing on properties used as collateral for loans for which courts gave the go ahead before the new foreclosure law came in effect last year.
The Bank of Cyprus' Real Estate Management Unit (REMU) is currently managing assets valued at €1.1 billion sold properties valued at €92 million during the first half of 2016 and is presently in negotiations to sell additional assets.
Aristo Developers has reached an agreement with the Bank of Cyprus to repay its debts, leaving the company with approximately €443 million of assets and around €110 million of outstanding loans.
The auctions by the Bank of Cyprus of ten properties valued in excess of €2.3 million got underway last week with just three of the seven plots in Paphos being sold yielding a total of €1.05 million.
The Bank of Cyprus plans to foreclose on ten properties valued in excess of €2.3 million next month – six properties in Paphos on June 23 and the remaining four properties in Nicosia the following day.
The Bank of Cyprus has announced it has restructured the loans of one its largest debtors, the Leptos Group, in an agreement that involves the extension of loan maturities and a reorganisation of the Group.
The Bank of Cyprus has established a Real Estate Management Unit that aims to acquire real estate in a voluntary asset-to-debt swap of non performing delinquent borrowers that would otherwise follow the foreclosure process.
The Bank of Cyprus is proposing revised settlements to borrowers alleging the mis-selling of Swiss Franc loans, but these are derisory compared to settlements negotiated with other Cypriot banks.
