Nicosia tops the league in property sales

Nicosia has climbed to the top of the property sales league after 7 years of lagging behind Limassol which dominated the market ever since the citizenship for investment scheme took off in 2013.

According to data released by the Land Registry, 197 property sales were recorded in Nicosia in January this year beating the 180 that were submitted for properties in the coastal town.

The last time the capital surpassed Limassol, on monthly sales, was in March 2013, when the financial crisis had just kicked in.

Real estate sales documents in Limassol were at a very low level with only 54 submitted that month. During the same period, Nicosia transactions were also at a low ebb but higher than Limassol’s with 83 sales documents filed.

However, the end of 2013 saw Limassol surpass Nicosia with a total of 1049 sales titles, compared to Nicosia’s 709.

Over the following years, Limassol led the pack with a significantly higher number of annual property sales.

Nicosia            Limassol

2013      709                     1049

2014      748                     1417

2015      749                     1566

2016      1031                   2496

2017      1464                   3167

2018      1606                   3411

2019      1998                   3517

Land Registry data shows an islandwide 3% decline in property sales in January compared to the same month in 2019.

In January 2020 the number of total Cyprus sales documents stood at 742 while for the corresponding month of 2019 the number had reached 766.

The largest decline was recorded in Limassol with a 28% slump in the number of sales reaching 180 from 251 in January 2019.

There was also a 10% decline in Paphos with a total of 168 sales documents compared to 187 in January last year.

Famagusta saw sales drop by 6% to 50 sales documents from 53 last January.

Nicosia on the other hand, kicked off the year with a 22% increase in property sales, reaching 197 compared to 161 in January 2019.

However, it was Larnaca which saw the largest increase in the first month of 2020, with a 29% spike in registered sales with 147 from 114 in January 2019.