Rising costs push Cypriot property buyers towards apartments, estate agents say
The Cyprus property market saw apartments emerge as the preferred choice among buyers during the second quarter of 2024, according to a report released on Tuesday from the Cyprus Real Estate Agents Registration Council.
The council explained that this was driven primarily by the high costs associated with purchasing houses and limited financing options for local buyers.
The council’s quarterly real estate bulletin, based on data retrieved from the Land Department, includes an analysis focused on four main categories of properties. These are apartments, houses, plots, and fields.
The council said that it “aims to capture the average value of completed sales in each district and the number of transactions”.
The council also clarified that the average price data does not solely reflect sales in the urban centres of free Cyprus.
Instead, the figures presented are derived from all sales within each district’s geographical boundaries.
“The current market conditions have shifted buyer interest towards acquiring apartments,” said Marinos Kineyirou, President of the Cyprus Real Estate Agents Registration Council.
“This is primarily due to the significantly higher costs associated with purchasing a house, as well as the fact that local buyers’ incomes often do not allow them to secure bank loans for home purchases,” he added.
Moreover, Kineyirou also said that “we are seeing a growing interest from land development entrepreneurs in acquiring plots and residential fields”.
Apartments
During the second quarter of 2024, a total of 489 apartment transfers were recorded across Cyprus.
The majority of these sales took place in the Nicosia district, while the highest average apartment value was recorded in Limassol (€246,919), notably higher than in other districts.
Specifically, the average apartment value in Nicosia stood at €134,031, followed by Larnaca with €133,058, and Paphos with €122,846.
Meanwhile, in the Republic of Cyprus-controlled area of Famagusta, the average apartment value stood at €109,804.
Houses
“The analysis of house sales for the April-June 2024 period included 110 transactions across all districts of free Cyprus, except Nicosia, for which there was insufficient data available at the time of analysis,” the council said.
It added that in this category, the Larnaca district recorded relatively low activity, being surpassed by the free Famagusta area in sales volume.
The average value of the 31 house sales in Paphos was €398,857, while in Limassol, the 24 recorded sales had an average value of €362,429.
In Famagusta, the 35 house sales averaged €273,028, while in Larnaca, the average value for the 20 sales recorded stood at €205,035.
“It is worth noting that these figures represent transactions across the entire district, including rural areas, not just urban centres,” the council explained.
Plots
Nicosia dominated plot sales, accounting for 273 of the 666 transactions completed nationwide during the second quarter.
However, the highest average plot values were recorded in Paphos (€265,884) and Limassol (€260,613).
Nicosia followed with an average value of €198,737, Larnaca with €173,220, and Famagusta with €151,103.
“It should be noted that some plots may have large areas or include structures, contributing to the high recorded values,” the council said in its report.
Fields
In terms of fields, the districts of Nicosia (435) and Limassol (417) together recorded the most transactions (852 out of 1,501) nationwide in the first quarter of 2024.
In terms of average values, fields were the most expensive in Paphos (€170,873) and cheapest in Larnaca (€96,255).
The average values of fields in the other three districts stood at €144,359 in Famagusta, €135,392 in Limassol, and €104,752 in Nicosia.
“Again, it should be noted that some properties listed as fields may include structures,” the council concluded.