The fact that Cyprus has a Title Deed System laid down by the British over 100 years ago is a very big plus for property buyers and sellers here in Cyprus.

Naturally there has been a huge back log of work for the Land Registry Departments caused by the property boom of 2000-2008 but this is being systematically addressed by the government.

Even though many developers made mileage out of the lax supervision and government slowness to issue Title Deeds, on the whole, most developers have behaved responsibly and sooner or later cooperated with the government to issue the Title Deeds for their projects.

Government, private individuals, not to mention the EU calls to comply with its laws, have exerted pressure on the developers and they are responding. Unfortunately there have been several cases that have adversely highlighted the Title Deed saga, but overall they are very small in number compared with the 250,000 properties that have been sold by developers in the last 20 years.

The recent changes to the Title Deeds Law as mentioned last month and the increased scrutiny of the legal profession in Cyprus are also a big step in the right direction to reduce the ‘red tape’ and protect buyers of immovable property.

This is precisely why Fitzgerald’s only sells property that we know all about and which either has the Title Deed, or is very close to it.

When the world seems to be going crazy stay calm! The constant flux in the Cyprus property market is an unsettling factor for both buyers and sellers.

The local press reports that Cyprus property prices have dropped across the whole spectrum of the property market. Whilst the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors report covering the period to the end of 2010 describes the performance of the property market as ‘disappointing’, the report also mentions that there are signs of price stabilisation amid signs of growth in the economy.

At Fitzgerald’s there is ample evidence that buyers are returning to the market taking advantage of lower prices for holiday homes and for permanent residence. The numbers of ‘moneyed’ people coming from the South of England, Scandinavia and Russia to seek a new and better life is rapidly increasing. As well, Cypriots are cashing in on the situation too.

However the air of optimism is returning for the sellers. As demand increases, indications are out there that the market has bottomed out and the prospects are much brighter on the horizon. Although there are a lot of bargain hunters, the sellers are far more confident to achieve a ‘fair’ market price.

The behaviour in property prices across Cyprus is not so much ‘disappointing’, to paraphrase the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors report, but returning to a normal, manageable level down from being grossly overpriced, especially in Paphos. Limassol property prices seem to be holding on, perhaps banking on the Russian clients’ cash power, but with increased interest from Russian buyers in Paphos properties, they too are looking for better value for their money.

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Pissouri Luxury Villa of 500 sqm at €725,000

The number of people who are looking at Fitzgerald’s quality property with Title Deeds is expanding rapidly, especially for villas, and the buyers are well aware that now is the right time to buy. Fitzgerald Estates has a large range of all types of quality property at all different price levels offering outstanding value.

To meet the demand Fitzgerald’s have expanded their portfolio of quality properties on www.fitzgeraldcyprus.com and their Prestige Property website www.fitzgeraldprestige.com As one well-healed Swede put it this week ‘I only look at your Prestige Property website www.fitzgeraldprestige.com because I want great quality under €1 million’.

‘There has never been a better time to buy your dream villa than now,’ says Daryl Fitzgerald. ‘The reasons that prices will increase, particularly for top quality properties, is that there is robust demand for quality properties at realistic prices.’

The local press is abuzz with the pros and cons of the proposed “amnesty” to solve the Title Deed saga. It is reported that there are over 130,000 outstanding title deeds and the long debated ‘town planning amnesty’ legislation proposed a whole host of measures. The need to give better protection to buyer’s rights and to end the negative impact that the Title Deeds issue has on property sales in Cyprus, the amnesty covers the town-planning and building irregularities. Some of those are developer related but some are owner generated, if for example, the owner made extensions, etc, without getting relevant permits. Measures include the new Immovable Property Sales (Specific Performance) Law which gives land contracts power over any mortgages owed to the banks by the seller.

So slowly but surely, news on property matters is becoming increasingly positive. More and more information is being given by the Authorities and the Land Registry has become a beacon of free and friendly information. There is much demand for properties with Title Deeds already issued and Fitzgerald’s market only those properties that either have the Title Deed or where the title deeds are ‘imminent’.

What does imminent mean? This means that the developer has submitted the application for the issuance of a separate title deed for the property at the local land registry office. After accepting the application, the Land Registry will give an AX File Number to the developer. This means that the Land Registry Surveyor will prepare the final drawings for the plan for the Title Deeds and in cooperation with the developer, the separate property Title Deed will be issued and the title transferred to the name of the purchaser. The whole process usually takes 1-2 years, provided the developer has carried out all building works according to the approved plans and has secured all necessary permits regarding the property from the authorities. Fitzgerald’s panel of lawyers who do the conveyancing for our clients will find out about the status of the issuance of the separate title deed for the relevant property and will give an indication on when the processing will be finalized – often in only 2-6 months.

A personal insight to home purchase experiences by Lynda Hall (now Fitzgerald’s accountant):

So! You’ve decided to buy a property in Cyprus as maybe a holiday home, or to rent out, or even to live here permanently. You’ve read the horror stories and seen the TV programmes about buying property abroad, so you think that the best thing to do is to buy brand new, perhaps even “off plan”. It will be your dream home.

It’s only when you’ve bought your property and are going through the nightmare of dealing with the developers and officialdom that you realise that if you had bought a re-sale, the majority of the problems you are having would not have occurred if you had bought a previously-owned property.

WHY?

Well, let’s have a look at a typical purchase of a new house or apartment – “off plan”. You go into the office of the developer and you are shown pictures of the sort of property in which you are interested - probably an artist’s impression. You are then taken to the actual development site and maybe building is in progress, so you can get a rough idea of what your property will be like. The view from your patio or balcony is amazing – straight down to the sea! You make plans for when you take over your house – warm nights sitting outside with a drink, peace and quiet, watching the ships on the horizon. Then you sign up and go back home wishing for the day to come when your property is ready.

Completion day arrives - but maybe it’s been delayed. OK, not a problem, you can give them a bit longer. Finally, you arrive in Cyprus and get the keys to your property. You open the door and everything’s fine, except that the view of the sea is now obscured by another building which has a big satellite dish on the roof. It’s not your developer who has built in front of you, but another company. Anyway, it’s lovely and hot and you’re relaxed. Then you notice that the kitchen units are not the ones that you chose. You switch the air-con on and the kettle, but the electric goes off. Talking to the neighbours, you find out that you are not yet officially connected to the mains electric – that’ll take a few weeks, months or in some cases over a year. Three days later, the water in your roof tanks has run out and you have no water. Round to the neighbours again and you’re told that you should have applied for a water meter. It’s not like at home, where the water and electric are automatically connected, you have to do it yourself here, or ask your solicitor to do it.

You find some faults with your property and make a “snagging” list which you give to the developers. As you are going back home, you leave them a key for the work to be done whilst you are away.

Three months later you’re back in Cyprus. Some of the “snagging” list work has been done – the rest hasn’t. You find more problems and you are promised these will be fixed; unfortunately you aren’t told when!

You’ve been given information about the rental income that you can expect if you decide to rent out your property. You’ve put a few adverts in your local paper, but the pictures of the views from your patio can’t be used, so you have to reduce the rent figure.

You talk to people around you and find out that the price that you paid is a lot higher than the selling price now. The property market in Cyprus is nothing like back home and you have paid maybe 10-20% more than you should have. You have also paid VAT, which is not applicable to re-sale properties.

Suddenly, you become a bit disillusioned and wonder where you went wrong.

Basically, you should have bought a “re-sale” property.