The housing market in North Cyprus has boomed, reports say, with over 17,000 foreigners making house purchases in the North over the last three years, ‘Star Kibris’ reports.
According to the newspaper, Russians and Germans are the main property buyers.
The Turkish Cypriot Real Estate Agents’ Union says that 2014 was the “brightest” for the property sector during the past seven years.
Twenty five thousand houses were sold, except for those residences on which “legal proceedings” have been launched.
It is said that Russians started investing in the real estate sector in North Cyprus after the Russian government’s decision providing that its citizens should declare their property.
During the past three years 6,000 Russians purchased property in the TRNC, writes the paper, adding that thanks to state incentives offered to German tourists as of 2014, the number of Germans who purchased property in the North exceeded the number of Russian purchases in one year.
In statements to the paper, the chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Real Estate Agents’ Union, Hasan Sungur said that measures should be taken in order keep foreign investments in this sector. He recalled that British citizens had been deceived during the past years and have left North Cyprus.
He said that there are scores of “illegal real estate agents” in the TRNC, adding that they operate unmonitored. He warned that if measures are not taken, the Russians and Germans may also be cheated and leave like British citizens have done.
