Foreigners buy fewer Cyprus property

The number of Cyprus property deals concluded by foreigners fell 11.7% Year-on-Year in the first quarter of 2008 to 446 from 505 in the same period in 2007 according to the Cyprus Land Registry.

The decline was in tandem with a 20% decline in the total of property deals concluded in the first quarter, which according to the same data fell to 4143 from 5202 in 1Q07. A slump in the UK property market, which usually supplies 60% of all property purchases by foreigners in Cyprus as well as the share appreciation of the euro against sterling were blamed as the principle reason leading to the decline.

With buyers from Russia, the Arab countries and other CIS Republics mostly in the high-end super luxury upper market, a decline in UK property is seen as having a major negative impact on the Cyprus property market, which since 2004 has been gaining in double digits on the belief that other Europeans will flood the island and snap up all property here.