The Cyprus real estate market is finding its legs again, just as, across the globe, the housing market is booming – real estate investment is starting to make sense again.
The pandemic threw a monkey wrench into real estate sales just about everywhere. As one major property manager and investor put it: “the entire year 2020 has been a big question mark, or maybe an endless string of curse words.”
People don’t like to make big investments during a period of instability. So the pandemic saw many investors keeping their powder dry, and waiting for clarity. Overall, global real estate investment dropped by 28 per cent, according to researcher JLL.
Cyprus is seeing the start of this boom. During June a total of 924 contracts for the purchase of real estate were deposed at land registry offices across the Republic, and this was an increase of 43 per cent from the June 2020 figure of 646. Sales increased in all sectors – residential, commercial, retail and land.
Buyers are reportedly making bids on homes without even seeing them, because demand is so great. Sellers are making use of a practice called ‘gazumping,’ in which they take bids but don’t finalise until they’ve got the best one.