Cyprus National Property Exhibition 27-29/04/2007

The 4th National Property Exhibition (Property 2007) starts in Nicosia on Friday, with over 20 developers showing off their houses, apartments and holiday homes.

Property 2007 runs over the weekend at the State Fair and will be opened by Communications and Works Minister Mr. Charis Thrassou. The increased demand lead to an upgrading this year, and thousands of visitors are expected.

There is big interest by both locals and foreigners who live and work in Cyprus, as well as to visitors looking to buy holiday or investment properties. Besides Cyprus properties, developers at the exhibition will be offering properties in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and other countries.

Property 2007 aims to inform on everything that is happening in the property industry as well as contribute to an improvement in Cyprus economy, strengthening the necessary relationship that must exist between developers and the public.

Based on current statistics, Cyprus property industry exceeds one billion pounds per year, bringing in £500,000 worth of foreign currency annually. These figures clearly indicate the importance of the Cyprus property industry.

The organisers of Property 2007 are the newspaper Akinita, IMH, the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce, Top Kinisis and Cyprus Popular Bank.

For more news on Cyprus Property please visit

http://www.cyprus-online.com/buy-sell/cyprus-news.html

Transaction costs in purchasing Cyprus Property

Cyprus ranks 25th out of 37 European countries when it comes to transaction costs in purchasing a house, with buyers needing an extra 7 % to cover fees and charges when they buy a Cyprus Property.

A study by Property Guide shows 12 countries with lower transaction costs than Cyprus, including Ireland at only 6.9 % and UK at 5.03 %. Property investments in Europe incur high transaction costs in many countries, exceeding 15 % in several cases. Purchasers of new properties often incur even higher costs.

The study takes into account all transaction costs involved in the property sale-purchase process, including registration and notary fees, legal fees, real estate agents’ commissions, and sales and transfer taxes.

In many countries VAT at 15-20 per cent is added on the purchase of new homes, hiking the cost up even more. Buyers of new residential property are in for a shock, because additional taxes are charged on newly constructed or renovated properties.

The lowest charges are recorded in Lithuania, where buyers pay only 2.3 % on top of the cost of their new homes. Other countries under ten % include Turkey, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway.

Buyers in Russia will pay the highest amount in transaction costs at 25 %, with Bulgaria at 24.8 % and Monaco 19.6 %, Belgium, Italy, France and Greece are close to 15 %. While actual registration costs in Cyprus are among the 12 very lowest of the 37 countries, transaction costs rise dramatically when agent’s fees and sales and transfer taxes are added. Legal fees, which also comprise part of the four criteria, are also low in Cyprus.

For more news on Cyprus Property please visit:

http://www.cyprus-online.com/buy-sell/cyprus-news.html

Using the internet to find retirement properties.

People looking for a retirement property abroad are increasingly using the internet to search for their new home. The number of online searches for international property increased by more than 1,000% in the last few years.

Traditional retirement hotspots Cyprus, France and Spain topped the list as the most searched-for destinations for people looking to buy a retirement home overseas. Other popular places that people were looking for retirement homes included Portugal and Bulgaria. The Institute for Public Policy Research last year showed that 5.5 million Britons already live abroad permanently and that many of these people had chosen to retire to the sun.

For more news on Cyprus property please visit
http://www.cyprus-online.com/buy-sell/cyprus-news.html

Illegal UK agents in Cyprus.

UK real estate agencies are illegally operating in Cyprus and are selling Greek Cypriot properties in the north.These were the assertions made by spokeswoman for the Cyprus Real Estate Agents’ Association Ms. Elli Andreou, who expressed her disappointment over the state’s lack of actions to prevent further exploitation of land in the occupied north.

“We have had many complaints that specific UK real estate agencies are operating illegally in the south and are also illegally dealing with Greek Cypriot land in the occupied areas,” Andreou said after meeting the House Commerce Committee to discuss tourist development in the north.

“We have given this information to the police, who unfortunately did not make use of it,” she added.Furthermore, the specific agencies recently requested Parliament alter legislation to enable them to operate legally in the Cyprus Republic.

“These companies are advertising properties in the north on the internet and apart from maintaining illegal agencies in the free areas, they are also asking for legal licensing from the Cyprus Republic so that they can operate legally,” Andreou explained.

She said the specific cases had been submitted to Parliament and the police, while when asked by reporters, she said she didn't want to believe that Greek Cypriots were behind the illegal agencies. The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Lefteris Christoforou said the embezzlement of Greek Cypriot properties in the north was of major concern to his committee and he called on the government to coordinate its actions in order to produce sufficient results.

“We are concerned by the fact that until today, we have had no prosecutions against those who are directly or indirectly implicated in the pure robbery of our properties,” said Mr. Christoforou. But he added that Parliament had a significant role to play too, by informing foreign governments and parliaments on the situation, so that “each Cypriot citizen, as well as every foreigner, is aware that any implication with the north is illegal”.

Finally, Mr. Christoforou expressed the opinion that a positive outcome of the Orams case – the case of a British couple who bought Greek Cypriot property in the north and is now in the midst of a legal battle at the British High Court with the land owner – would be the determining factor and significant precedent.

For more news on Cyprus Property please visit

http://www.cyprus-online.com/buy-sell/cyprus-news.html

Cyprus hotels converted into apartments

Several seaside hotels are being converted into luxurious apartments without the necessary permits being obtained. A land developer had bought at least 5 hotels in Limassol and had already converted them, with the 200 apartments going for between £500,000 and £800,000.

The high prices are due to their proximity to the sea, with most of the buyers being Russians. The same phenomenon has been seen in Paralimni, where 14 hotels have been converted into flats, apparently also without the necessary permits being secured.

The reason the conversions were being undertaken was that these hotels did not comply with Cyprus Tourism Organisation regulations. Given that they cannot then work as hotels, developers are changing their status.

Last year, the CTO came up with a series of incentives, including tax breaks and building incentives, for certain sub-standard hotels to be converted into other buildings. This was with the aim of improving the overall quality of tourism on the island.

The Cabinet approved the scheme, but the Town Planning Department then delayed everything, demanding that everything had to go through them in order for permits to be issued. This caused a postponement of the incentive scheme, which had to be rethought. In the meantime, however, many hotels took it upon themselves to convert their buildings into flats or car parking areas.

A CTO spokesman said that hotels were “already selling their properties to the point where it was not to the benefit of the tourism industry,” with the Mayor of Paralimni saying something needed to be done in order to put an end to the practice. Last week, Interior Minister Neoklis Syllikiotis warned that any conversion undertaken without the granting of the necessary permits would be classified as illegal.

How many hotels have been converted is not known as the conversions have taken place outside of the incentive scheme.

For more news on Cyprus Property please visit

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Moneycorp opening a new office in Cyprus

Moneycorp is continuing its ambitious international expansion with the opening of a new office in Cyprus. The Cyprus property market is proving to be one of the fastest growing property markets within Europe, with people buying homes and real estate for investment purposes.

The Cyprus office is Moneycorp’s fourth new overseas office in the last two years. It will offer local clients and local-based expatriates with a full range of services, including account management, advice and support. It will allow Moneycorp to further develop relationships with professionals in the Cyprus property and migration sectors.

Vasilios Dimarakis, Head of Overseas Operations says, “The property market in Cyprus has been something of a phenomenon in recent years. The market is now showing stable but healthy growth with the promise of more good things to come as the country prepares to adopt the Euro currency on 1st January 2008”.

“By opening a new office in Cyprus we are able to provide local support and assistance to vast expatriate communities and our local referring partners. Overall, the expansion underlines our commitment to fully capitalising on this growing market.”

Moneycorp is a trading division of the TTT Moneycorp Group, which was established in 1979 and last year traded in excess of GBP7.5 bln in currencies. The Company is part-owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and has been accredited to ISO 9000 quality assurance since 1996, a unique achievement in the foreign exchange industry.

Moneycorp is the UK's leading foreign exchange company and provides tailored foreign exchange services to help individuals save money on their overseas currency transfers.

For more news on Cyprus Properties please visit

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Dolphin acquisition of Cyprus Property Developer Aristo.

Dolphin Capital partners is heading for a market capitalisation of over 1 billion dollars US following the successful acquistion of Aristo Developments Cyprus largest property developer in the holiday homes market.

The total deal worth over 200 million UK sterling sees Dolphin acquire a controlling stake in Aristo with 60% of the shares for 128 million EUROS Miltos Kambourides MD at Dolphin said on the deal.

The acquisition of Aristo Developers marks the most important milestone to date in our investment program. We are excited to be partnering up with the founder of the company Theodoros Aristodemou and integrating into the DCI portfolio a vast and attractive pipeline of significantly advanced development projects together with unrivalled technical know-how, serving to solidify Dolphin's leadership position in the residential resort sector in Southeast Europe Dolphin Capital are quickly being labelled as pioneers in the leisure development market with deals consistently over 100 million EUROs.

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