83% of property sales in Paphos in past decade went to foreigners

Foreign buyers have dominated Cyprus’s property market since 2015, with the coastal city of Paphos seeing 83% of property sales going to non-Cypriots, according to government data released on Wednesday.

The figures, provided by the Interior Ministry to parliament, show that 75.86% of property sales in Paphos in 2015 went to non-EU nationals, while 6.87% were purchased by EU citizens, leaving just 17% for Cypriot buyers.

Similar patterns continued in 2016, with foreign buyers accounting for 80.94% of property sales in Paphos, comprising 72.11% non-EU nationals and 8.83% EU citizens.

The data, released in response to questions from AKEL MP George Koukoumas, excludes properties purchased by foreign companies, suggesting the actual proportion of foreign ownership could be higher.

Nationwide figures for the period between January 2015 and December 2024 show that out of 101,911 sale agreements, 62,935 were completed. Additionally, 3,846 out of 12,110 assignment contracts were executed during the same period.

Despite the surge in foreign purchases in recent years, Cypriots still own 96.73% of all property value on the island, based on 2021 valuations. However, officials note that recent foreign purchases typically involve higher-value properties.

Regional data shows varying levels of foreign ownership across Cyprus, with Paphos leading at 8.14%, followed by Larnaca at 6.18%, Famagusta at 5.85%, Limassol at 3.90%, and Nicosia at 1.5%.

The Interior Ministry acknowledged that the figures only cover purchases by individual buyers, as reliable data for corporate property ownership was unavailable.

In Cyprus philenews

Leave a Reply