Cypriot real estate market falls

New figures from the Cypriot Land
Registry have showed that the slump in the country’s property market shows no
signs of abating.  The number of
sales of property in Cyprus has fallen for thirteen consecutive months and the
number of houses sold fell by almost one quarter between July 2010 and July
2011.

Sales falling and could have ‘huge economic costs’

Cyprus Property News reports that the number of contracts deposited
at Land Registries throughout Cyprus in July for the purchase of property fell
by almost a quarter between July 2010 and July 2011.  There were just 605 contracts deposited in July this year
compared to 797 in the same period last year.

Total sales of property in Cyprus
have fallen almost one fifth, from 5,205 in 2010 to 4,182 in 2011.  Sales are also down by 7 per cent on
2009 where 4,493 properties were sold between January and July.

Sales fell across all areas of
Cyprus but were particularly poor in Paphos where property sales were down 39.3
per cent on the same period in 2010.

The lack of sales is having a
devastating knock-on effect on the country’s construction business with the
Federation of the Building Contractors Associations of Cyprus (OSEOK) recently
announcing that many contracting companies are terminating or suspending their
operations and that unemployment in the sector is increasing dramatically.

The group said that no action to
halt the decline in properties sold will be “tragic with dimensions that will
have huge economic and social costs”.

Fall in sales of Cyprus property to overseas buyers

Sales of property in Cyprus to
overseas buyers also fell in July. 
Just 122 contracts for foreigners were deposited compared to 167 in July
2010 (a 26.9 per cent decrease).

While sales to foreign buyers
were up at the start of the year, June and July’s figures now mean that the
rise in sales to foreign buyers from 2010 to 2011 is now just 0.3 per cent.