First internationally recognised property price index for Cyprus is published

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has launched a property price index for Cyprus which is aimed at making the real estate market more transparent.

It will track property and rental prices across all districts and monitor changes in residential properties, offices, high street retail and warehouses and be published quarterly.

The first one just published will provide a base index on which all future changes in price and rental levels will be benchmarked.

The highest prices for high street retail, offices, and warehouses are recorded in the bigger urban centres of Nicosia and Limassol. Warehouses are 18% more expensive in Limassol, probably due to it having the island’s main commercial port.

House and apartment prices are spread evenly across the island, with an average price of €1,865 per square meter for apartments and of €2,001 for houses. The low standard deviation across all cities of only 9% and 10% respectively shows that, excluding tourist areas and areas of special value, the vast majority of homes for locals are evenly priced.

‘These low yields may show that rents are being kept artificially low by the tendency of companies to occupy properties with alternative uses, mainly residential, in order to minimise their costs. An alternative explanation is that property prices are too high due to the lack of land supply and the price boom of the past few years,’ the report adds.

The RICS Cyprus Property Price Index monitors the urban centres of Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Paralimni-Famagusta. The Index only tracks prices in Republic of Cyprus’ government controlled area and not in the occupied North.

Cyprus at number seven in Top of the Props

The popularity of Cyprus as a destination for overseas property investment has increased according to the July Top of the Props chart published by themovechannel.com and a second survey published by homesoverseas.com

CYPRUS has moved up three places from number 10 to number 7 in the July 2009 Top of the Props chart published by themovechannel.com

The most popular investment destination for British overseas property buyers was the USA, which pushed last month’s number 1, Spain, into second place. These were followed by France and Portugal, in third and fourth places.

Turkey sneaked into fifth place, followed by Italy and Cyprus at six and seven. Rounding off July’s Top of the Props chart was Bulgaria in eighth place, followed by the UAE. Egypt took the final place in the lineup, coming in tenth.

IN A SEPARATE survey, Cyprus has moved up one place to number 8.

Property in Spain has replaced property in Portugal, as the most searched for destination to buy a home abroad based on country page views, and property views, on their website over the past month.

Elsewhere, Greece property has risen from fourth to third, Italy property has fallen a position to fourth, French property is up a place to fifth, Turkey property is down a place to sixth, USA property has gone up from eighth to seventh, Cyprus property is up a place to eighth, Thailand property is down from seventh to ninth, while Egypt property retains tenth spot.

Source: Cyprus Property Buyers

Contract signed for Wind Park in Cyprus

Cyprus is to get its first wind park, one of the biggest in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

The operation of the wind park is a step towards meeting EU objectives relating to energy production from renewable energy sources amounting to 13% by 2020, an official announcement said here today.

The contract for the connection of the first Wind Park, of a total power of 82MW, with the electricity transmission network in Cyprus was signed on July 19 between the transmission system operator of Cyprus and the producer (D.K. Windsupply Ltd), it added.

The wind park will be built by a Danish company in Orites region, in Paphos district, on the west, and will consist of 41 wind turbines of 2,0 MW each.

The European Investment Bank will contribute to the construction with 65 million euro, in addition to a partnership of other international banking institutions.

The announcement noted that the involvement of such major investors and their interest in financing this project demonstrates that the use of wind energy in Cyprus is possible and profitable.

The energy produced by the wind park will be channeled into the transmission network in accordance with the Grant Project of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and will be bought by the Electricity Authority of Cyprus at a price determined in the plan.

Source: Xak.com

Etihad expands services in Cyprus

MIDDLE-EASTERN airline Etihad is expanding in Cyprus by singing a code share agreement with Cyprus Airways.

The company now has three flights a week between Cyprus and the United Arabic Emirates. The airline operates a two-class Airbus A320, carrying around 140 passengers, with availability of 20 business seats and 120 seats in economy class.

Peter Baumgartner, chief commercial officer of Eithad Airways signed the code share MOU with commercial manager of Cyprus Airways Christos Agapiou yesterday in Nicosia during an official ceremony.

The agreement provides the opportunity to Cyprus Airways to use the CY code on Etihad flights between Larnaca and Abu Dhabi. The aim of the code share is to introduce Etihad Airways to the Cypriot market and to increase its presence with cooperation of the island’s national airline.

Source: Cyprus Mail

Cyprus has historic chance to heal the division

The European Commission urged estranged Cypriots Thursday to seize a "historic chance" to reunite their island, split by a conflict spanning decades and troubling Turkey's bid to join the EU.

"The time is now. Do not allow a situation where the younger generation will simply accept the status quo," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

"There is a historic chance now to end this conflict once and for all," he told journalists on a whistle-stop visit to the island, a member of the European Union since 2004.

Cyprus, divided between its ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, is a key obstacle in Turkey's chances of joining the European Union.

The Mediterranean island was effectively partitioned in a Turkish invasion in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup. Its government-controlled south represents Cyprus in the EU, with the north a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state recognized only by Ankara.

Cyprus's internationally recognized Greek Cypriots say they will never allow Turkey to join the bloc as long as the island is partitioned. Ankara's EU membership talks, which started in October 2005, have been partially frozen because of the situation on the island.

Turkey's progress in membership talks will be assessed later this year.

Greek and Turkish Cypriot community leaders launched peace talks last year, but progress has been slow.

Barroso said the EU Commission was ready to help and support a deal on Cyprus, but said: "We cannot make the deal...it is up to the Cypriots themselves to find a solution.

Cyprus has said it will support Barroso's re-election bid for a second five-year term for the EU Commission presidency.

Source:Reuters

Cyprus To Have Highest Growth Rate In Europe

Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis said on Friday that Cyprus is expected to have the highest and only positive growth rate in Europe in the year 2009. Commenting the latest projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Cyprus' growth rate is expected to be 0.3% in the year 2009, Stavrakis said that according to calculations of the Ministry aduring the first quarter of 2009 Cyprus' growth rate will be ''quite satisfactory and close to 2%.''

He furthermore said that ''2010 will be a difficult year'' and assured that the government would be making sure to deal with current financial conditions in order to minimise the cost on the taxpayers and the economy in the years to come.

Speaking after a meeting at the Ministry to brief the private sector on the initialing of an agreement between Cyprus and Russia for the avoidance of double taxation and to discuss the action plan for 2009 for attracting foreign investments, Stavrakis said it was positive that, according to IMF figures, ''Cyprus is expected to have the best performance in the whole of Europe.''

This reaffirms the government's position that the fiscal policy it has been following is the right one, which secures the highest possible growth rate in very adverse external conditions,'' he added. Asked if the slower growth rate increases the state's costs, Stavrakis said ''it creates upward pressure on unemployment and possibly a great deterioration of public finances.''

'This is why we are handling public finances in a very conservative and cautious manner, in an effort to restrict ourselves to focused expenditure,'' he added. Stavrakis said ''2010 will be a difficult year and thus we need to maintain several fiscal ammunition in order to support the real economy,'' adding that ''any expenditure that is not a dire necessity at this moment to support the economy is expenditure that the taxpayer and the citizens will bear in the coming years.''

Source: Financial Mirror

Cyprus Airways Increases Flights To Dubai

Cyprus Airways announced that in summer they would fly to Dubai more frequently, namely three times a week.

Cyprus Airways will connect Larnaca Airport with Dubai with direct flights every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The company also announced that for this air route it offers special low-priced fares starting from 260 euros including all taxes except service fee.

Cyprus Airways is the national airline of Cyprus. It operates scheduled services to over 30 destinations in Europe, the Middle and Near East and the Gulf. The company is listed in the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE). The Cyprus government is the majority shareholder.