Property in Cyprus is a good investment. Land in Cyprus is a great investment! A great plot in a fabulous area around the island is still attainable if you choose this type of valuable investment. If you are looking for a property to live in year round or holiday home or just as an investment for the future if you own a plot you will have many options as to what to do with it. There is a lot of land available with all different sorts of rules and regulations for each type so there are a lot of things you must consider before buying land in Cyprus.

The situation in Cyprus is unique as the island is divided between the Turkish and Greek-Cypriots. Accession to the EU may help to resolve any internal problems sooner rather than later due to the fact that Turkey is vying for entry into the EU. The recent visit of the Greek president to Turkey proves that dialogue is in the process. Meanwhile Southern Cyprus or the Republic of Cyprus has not touched any of the property that is or was owned by the Turkish Cypriot community before the fall out of 1974. You can see vacant lots everywhere that are either Turkish Cypriot land left unkempt or being leased out by the government to Greek Cypriots for farming purposes. Empty plots are next to brand new buildings and Turkish Cypriot land is often in very desirable areas. One day all this land may very well come into play in this desirable market.

Cyprus is divided into various planning zones which include residential, agricultural, animal rearing, industrial, green belt, and tourist zones. If you see land that you like you have to make sure that the land is appropriately zoned so you are not denied permission to build, have to pay too much to get electricity, water, and telephone service to your land or you may have to wait a very long time to have access to those basic services. You could possibly have to give up part of your land for roads, pavements and amenity areas. There may be no access to the land, a big inconvenience obviously. If a plot is more than 300 feet from a public road, permission to build a home on it will most likely be refused. Finally, your neighbors may be some farm animals, a cemetery or something worse so you must know your zoning before you buy!

You can buy land designated as a building plot which means that the utility services will be available on the land and vehicular access will be allowed. A building plot is usually more expensive to buy as the owners will have already divided it into building plots and paid for installation of utility services. Other factors to consider are: building density, site coverage, usage, height and number of floors; and define the overall parameters and constraints of any structures that can be erected. Building density seems to range from 10% to 110% which may be too low to build a normal, live-able sized property or the zone prohibits homes to be built at all.

A lot of the land in Cyprus is privately owned, usually by one or several members of the same family. Talking to locals, the newspaper and of course agents can help you find land. In Cyprus, most land is sold through word-of-mouth so visit the local coffee shop and other places locals hang out or watch out for those hand made signs on the side of the street.

Land that the Cyprus government or land registry office had once zoned as only 10% density can likely become 100+% in the future. This has verified peoples’ reasons for investing in Cyprus. There has been a boom in the property market in Cyprus for over the last decade. But, Cyprus is yet to see what the property market can do!

Cyprus is set to see great growth and even greater investment potential since the adoption of the Euro on January 1, 2008. The availability of land, the infrastructure on the island, stability of the government and the vital location for year round sunshine as well as being at the crossroads of three continents should make any serious investor feel the urgency to visit Cyprus and make their claim. I did.