2020 Cyprus Country Report

Construction & Real Estate
Sector Profile
The gaming area at the casino is set to span across
7,500 square metres, over 9,600 square metres
will be for convention, meeting and event spaces,
and a 1,200 square metre retail area will replicate
the feel of the old Nicosia city centre. The resort
is expected to contribute around €700 million
annually to the economy. The project will also
support the local construction industry as it is
expected to create around 4,000 jobs each year
during the construction period. In addition, it
will contribute an estimated 6,500 direct and indirect
full-time positions in Cyprus when fully
operational in 2021.
The number of foreign investors closing
multimillion-euro deals on new projects and
acquisitions of existing assets such as five-star
hotels, malls and luxury marinas is evidence of
the appeal of tourism-related real estate. In this
area, the country’s investment promotion agency
Invest Cyprus has also set up a dedicated and
specialised unit, TourInvest, to promote investment
opportunities in the tourism and hospitality
sector. The unit focuses on attracting multimillion
investment into large-scale infrastructure
projects, that exist in diversified thematic areas,
such as nautical tourism, cultural tourism, sports,
conference, health and wellness, as well as rural
tourism in cooperation with the Deputy Ministry
of Tourism and other stakeholders. TourInvest
acts as the first point of contact to international
investors, and provides valid and useful information
on projects of their interest.
POST-CORONA REALITY
No country has come out unscathed by the coronavirus
outbreak, including Cyprus, and it is still
difficult to assess the long-term impact it may
have on the real estate and construction sector.
For the last few years, the industry in Cyprus
has gone full steam ahead but a new reality has
emerged since the pandemic and insecurity in
the global economy.
All sectors of the real estate market came to a
temporary standstill with a multitude of projects
that are unfinished and many transactions already
agreed in principle or even midway through
were frozen or postponed. Many developers
had already been scaling down activity during
2019, but others who got into the development
of residences late, and particularly in multi-unit
towers, have a large stock of unsold units. Though
the pandemic brought construction to a halt for
several months, work quickly picked up where it
left off. Construction sites were amongst some of
the last to close when lockdown measures were
announced but the first to reopen, highlighting
the importance of the sector to the economy.
Our
authorities’
excellent
handling of
the recent
pandemic
managed to raise our profile
and created a lot of interest in
purchasing property in Cyprus.
Buyers on the high end of
the market are continually
looking for opportunities
to invest, particularly in
destination developments
with high returns, offering an
exit strategy. We have every
reason to remain optimistic
and expect demand to
continue to be strong in 2021,
especially for ready to move
in properties and projects
approaching their delivery.
Michalis Hadjipanayiotou
CEO
Cybarco Development Ltd
The number of foreign investors closing multimillioneuro
deals on new projects and acquisitions of existing
assets such as five-star hotels, malls and luxury marinas
is evidence of the appeal of tourism-related real estate.
Limassol Marina, Cybarco
72 Country Report CYPRUS 2020