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Nicosia driving slow real estate market

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Nicosia is driving the Real Estate market with total property sales in the capital in the first nine months of 2021, exceeding that recorded pre-coronavirus pandemic.

Sales in the capital increased by a whopping 37% in the first nine months compared to the same period in coronavirus stricken 2020, and 38% more than the same period in pre-COVID 2019.

Despite an overall 9% decrease of Cyprus property sales from January to September, compared to 2019, Nicosia pulled in a remarkable increase, being the only district to do so.

According to Land Registry data, the number of sales documents submitted totalled 7003 from January – September, up from 5444 in the same period last year and down from 7736 in the nine months of 2019.

In the first nine months of 2020, the overall activity in the real estate market increased by 29% from last year.

Part of this increase is attributed to last year’s low base due to lockdowns that significantly reduced economic activity and the operation of the land registry itself.

Real Estate sales rose in all other districts; however, compared to 2019, sales decreased in all districts except Nicosia.

The biggest drop of 40% was in Paphos, while a decrease of 18% was seen in Limassol.

As the Central Bank pointed out in its latest real estate price report, the property market has been going through a period of adjustment since the beginning of the pandemic.

It attributed this to a possible shift of buyer and investor preferences to smaller apartments or houses of lesser value than previous years.

According to the Central Bank, there is increased demand for residential property in most districts, mainly for apartments and houses of smaller size and value than in the past.

On an annual basis, there is a stabilisation in house prices with an increase of 0.9% in the first quarter of 2021 from 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

In 2020, sales documents fell to their lowest point since 2016 at 7,968 units compared to 10,366 in 2019, recording an annual decrease of 23.1%.