In addition to the local buyers of real estate,a large percentage of worried buyers are the foreign ones. It is difficult to say what is the percentage of foreign buyers in relation to locals, but as a rough guess and within urban area/holiday resorts, we would say it is over 25%.
Each and every foreign buyer, buys a property bearing in mind its own country's procedures and safeguards. This is especially so for the E.U. countries and less evident for the others. Now that the real estate market is in trouble, the questions which could have been raised at the time of purchase and which did not, are now surfacing.
There are people with no titles, others with titles but with no capability of the seller to transfer, the buyers not paying their installments and the owner (developer) being a guarantor, even when transfer can be effected the buyers are not interested (lack of cash), the tax authorities will not release individual units in a project for transfer, holding hostage say 30 units because one of the buyers is not paying etc etc. It is a mess and the problem is common both to locals as well as to the foreign buyers and everybody is asking for answers. To whom can one turn, to the Planning Department, to the Municipality, to the local Tax authority, to the Lands Office, to the Income Tax people, to the Ministry of the Interior, to the seller? There are so many people involved and so much official indifference, one wonders what to do and how one goes about it.
Don't expect this Government will provide some sort of a guidance line addressing most of the above questions. The Civil Service is worth very little in terms of care and we have suggested to prepare some sort of a paper to answer this sort of questions which are very upsetting to buyers and even suggest procedures to limit the damage/loss.
So and because we do not believe in the Civil Service, what we would suggest is this:
Set up an "experts" team comprising a lawyer, a real estate advisor and a Lands' office (legal) person. Collect all available inquiries and add personal ones giving answers. This paper could form the basis for each and every interested person to discuss with his/her own advocate and decide what action to take. This "group" could get in touch with the Bankers' Association in order to get answers, to ascertain their point of view, as well as to discuss other issues, such as loans in foreign currency, the corporate guarantees, guidance on disappearing buyers etc etc. Discuss the building amnesty procedure (crazy as is). Become a "body", a sort of pressure group, to deal in addition to the above other matters regarding real estate. Submit its view to the House and the Government. Etc etc
We feel that this is the only way forward in order to address people's worries and questions. In a country such as ours, private initiative is the way to help solve some of the problems. A similar effort was undertaken by CIBA regarding the conditions/regulations on the work permits of foreign people. Another private initiative is the comprehensive report on residency/visa/passport for cash, regarding real estate buyer prepared by ourselves and Andreas Neocleous law firm.
This new body (let's call it romantically Group of Care) which will prepare this paper could be forwarded to the various embassies and others, in order to help themselves and their บ้านมือสอง ราคาถูก compatriots. A most embarrassing way for the Cyprus Government, but based on our experience, this is the only way, if we want answers and get some sort of results within a reasonable time scale. The question is who will pay for this? We suggest, say for a budget of €100.000, the purchasers, the Government, those foreign embassies who think that this is worth it, developers and other interested parties. Regrettably at this society that we live nothing done for free (our opinion is that the Government should foot the Bill in total, but, then, do we really believe that this will happen? - No).
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