As per the event on our Facebook page – Buying Property in Cyprus we will be providing details here of the debate by Cypriot MP’s on the 3rd September 2015 relating to title deeds.
Please bookmark this page and add the Facebook event to your schedule to receive updates on the debate.
Update 2nd September 2015
We wrote to the Interior Minister Mr Socrates Hasikos in late September 2013 (almost 2 years ago) regarding the title deeds debacle in Cyprus.
Specifically we directed him to the latest article published on the Cyprus Mail website and all the comments confirming how bad the position was i.e. on average it takes 10 years to receive confirmation that you own your property (title deeds) and selling something you don’t legally own is difficult, although not impossible. The Cyprus Mail article is here and the response we received from Mr Hasikos is shown below.
We are not under any illusion that our correspondence with the Interior Minister had any effect on the Parliamentary Bill of the 3rd September 2015 (tomorrow as we write this) but we are pleased that all being well a major step forward is about to be made for the tens of thousands of property buyers in Cyprus without title deeds. Our correspondence with Mr Hasikos actually stated that the problem will not be fully resolved until such time as title deeds are issued at point of sale for every property i.e. as soon as the property is built.
We are still quite a long way from achieving this but the issue of who the title deeds really belong to should be resolved tomorrow. The banks are trying to argue that this will have a serious impact on their capital adequacy ratios as they will no longer have collateral against the Developers loans. As the Interior Minister has pointed out the banks will be able to transfer the Developers loans to their other (unsold) land and properties and even claim against the Directors personal assets. Where this is not possible there is no sympathy for the banks as they knew full well that the Developers were selling the properties and NOT paying down their associated loans on the property.
Update 3rd September 2015
Finally title deeds ARE to be released to almost 80,000 property buyers in Cyprus. Some buyers have been waiting literally decades for legal ownership of their properties. Today Cypriot MP’s voted unanimously to release title deeds at the request of Troika as part of the Cypriot bailout agreed in 2013.
More details to follow………………….
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As the Cyprus economy and banking system approaches meltdown many buyers without legal title to their retirement homes must be very worried. Some unfortunate buyers have found out already by accident that their homes are scheduled to be sold off in order to pay off their bankrupt developer’s debts – not only to the banks but to the many other creditors, including the Inland Revenue, who have since come out of the woodwork and also lodged claims against the title deeds.
ScienceGuy,
Did you read the post before making your comment? Massive changes were introduced on the 3rd September for buyers waiting for their title deeds.