CYPRUS Trends and Developments Contributed by: Marios Konstantinou and Stalo Konstantinou, George K. Konstantinou Law Firm
• Building permissions for low and medium-risk developments of up to two housing units are issued within 40 working days. The low-risk developments comprise up to two hous - ing units, while medium-risk developments comprise (with exceptions) three to four hous - ing units or up to 12 residences in a straight line, building blocks with 20 apartments and up to four floors, not including a ground floor parking area. • If permission is not issued within the time limit but there is no rejection, it is considered to have been issued. However, there are safe - guards: town planning will conduct random inspections every six months. Building inspectors The Ministry of the Interior also announced that a building inspector scheme will be established through Ministry regulations. Inspectors will be responsible for visiting and monitoring building sites. The Ministry worked with ETEK to pro - duce the regulatory framework and create a list of building inspectors. ETEK recommends that the scheme, once put into effect, should contain strict deadlines and be carried out electronically to avoid delays. The scheme has been announced for medium- risk developments. Building inspectors must be ETEK members, and legislation ensures they perform their duties objectively, independently and without bias. This legislation was passed in the form of administrative regulations on 25 April 2025. Case law A recent constitutional law decision has raised concerns about real estate, particularly about the so-called “trapped” or “enclaved” buyers (hereafter called “trapped buyers” ). These buy - ers do not have title deeds to their property even
though they may have paid the full price or are regularly paying their mortgage. This happens when the seller cannot transfer the title to the property, usually because they have already mortgaged the property without using the sale proceeds to repay the mortgage. To deal with the issue, the government passed legislation (in 2011, 2015 and 2024) under which the Director of the Department of Lands and Sur - veys (DLS) could, on application by the trapped buyer, lift the original mortgage and transfer the property to the trapped buyer. This could, of course, only be done if the trapped buyer had repaid the mortgage themselves. Nevertheless, the power granted to the Director of the DLS has since been held to be unconsti - tutional, in Civil Appeal 285/ 2018 at the Cyprus Court of Appeal. The Cyprus Constitution, being in full accord with the European Convention on Human Rights, grants the right to property and freedom of contract. Although lawful restrictions to some rights are allowed, cancellations are not. The power of the Director was held to be a cancellation of both the bank’s right to property (mortgage is a type of property) and its freedom of contract. Certain safeguards in the legislation were considered ineffective and unable to bring the present law within constitutional demands. Moreover, in a July 2024 judgment, the Cyprus Court of Appeal pointed out that previous case law has established that the Director of the DLS has no authority to adjudicate on property rights, let alone cancel them. Since the decision, the DLS has stopped hearing applications from trapped buyers.
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