FAQ North Cyprus Property

www.propertycyprussales.com

Many thanks for your valued enquiry regarding North Cyprus property investment market since year 2000.   Please refer to the graph below, which shows the trend line of an average house in North Cyprus, Kyrenia.  The average is taken as 3 bedroom detached property.   Please let me know if you require further assistance.

Please see my notes in conjunction with the graph.

• Steep price increases started in year 2003 with the opening of the property market to foreign purchase after changing the existing legislation.
• Year 2003 – 2005 saw very steep price increases amounting to 20% per annum. 
• Toward the end of 2005, price increases slowed right down with some adverse publicity in the UK press fostered by Greek Cypriot publicity in connection with land matters in North and South Cyprus.  This slow-down lasted some 18 months up until a land-mark case in the UK and EU courts, where claims of Greek Cypriots to some land in North Cyprus were not recognized and ruled out of court toward the end of 2006.  Please refer to Couple Wins Battle over North Cyprus Property
• 2006 and 2007 saw steady price increases around 10-12%
• In 2008, we expect some 10% price increases in line with the general economic climate, predominantly in the UK, being somewhat down.

Year 2008 average price comparisons for a 3 bedroom villa without pool near the coast

North Cyprus	£100,000
Antalya, Turkey	£105,000
South Cyprus	£210,000
Spain	£225,000

North Cyprus prices are currently in line with Turkish Mediterranean coastline and less than half that of comparable prices in South Cyprus and Spain.  We expect prices in North Cyprus to catch up with similar destinations in Spain and South Cyprus in just over 5 years.

Gillian Miller - 30 August 2007 - Re crime rate in North Cyprus, resale potential of North Cyprus property and chat forums on North Cyprus

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts and readings.  Indeed, there are pluses and minuses to everything. 

North Cyprus is an emerging property market only since 2002.  There are very attractive new projects opening up regularly and they tend to offer attractive payment terms and prices.  As a result, North Cyprus is what we call an ‘off-plan’ investment market, one where the resale market is not very strong.  Why should it be? When you have attractive developments at a lower price and flexible payment terms, only few buyers will go for a resale property.  Owners of resale properties, however, think that they can sell their properties at a very healthy margin and walk away with large profits.  This can be done but you will not have buyers snapping it off you, especially if the property is not competitively priced.    Naturally the market will turn and as the numbers of new projects diminish, then a healthy resale market will start, however, in my opinion, we are at least 5 years away from that. 

The bottom line is if you are looking for fast and steep capital growth, then you are looking at the wrong place, certainly not the higher end (villa end) of the market.  There are significant gains to be made, however, at the lower end (2 bed 2 bath sea view apartments) of the market, where you go in at below off-plan prices (what I call pre-launch) and sell prior to completion.  However, this is not what you are looking for.

It would be wrong to say that there is no crime in North Cyprus.  There are petty crimes for sure, however, compared to most other destinations, including Spain, Portugal etc, crime rate is exceptionally low.  My parents now live in North Cyprus and the level of crime is certainly not a topical conversation, far from it.  The political state of the country is what it is….It certainly has advantages and disadvantages.  If you are an exporter of local produce, then you are disadvantaged for you will have to export your goods over Turkey and your products become less competitive.  However, if you are a foreign buyer, then you have access to a piece of the Mediterranean at some of the lowest prices going.  Basically, it is pros and cons.

I think you are at this stage exposing yourself too much to forums etc, which I do not believe is healthy.  In addition, some of those forums have been infiltrated by a very strong Greek Cypriot lobby trying to put people off purchasing in North Cyprus.  We have come across plenty such cases.  In one case, we had purchased tickets for a Welsh couple via Thomas Cook for North Cyprus.  The couple called us one day before their intended departure and advised us that the tour operator called them and informed of cancellation of their flights.  When we investigated we found out that Thomas Cook had sub-contracted this particular deal to a third party agent, who happened to be based in South Cyprus and the flights were actually not cancelled.  So, please draw your own conclusions.   
 
I can assure you that when you are in North Cyprus, we will introduce you to people, who have settled there and have been living there for some time now.  You can exchange views and learn from their experiences.

I hope this helps

Best Regards
Steve Adamson