Is There Still Such A Thing As A Cheap Cyprus Apartment?

Sep 25
08:22

2007

Kevin Moore

Kevin Moore

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Owning a Cyprus apartment is a dream that could just become a reality. Property prices continue to rise especially the price of the typical one bedroom Cyprus property so you would expect a cheap Cyprus apartment to be a thing of the past. This is however not the if you know where to start your Cyprus property search. Because there are still plenty of Cyprus real estate bargains out there for those who are prepared to do some legwork first. The key to any successful major purchase is research, research and then some more of the same.

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Whilst Cyprus apartment prices continue to rise especially the price of the typical one bedroom property you would expect a cheap Cyprus apartmentto be a thing of the past. The truth is that if you know where to start your Cyprus property search there are still plenty of Cyprus real estate bargains out there for those who are prepared to do some homework first. The key to any successful major purchase is research,Is There Still Such A Thing As A Cheap Cyprus Apartment? Articles research and then some more research. So if you are searching for that cheap Cyprus apartment bargain you will need all the relevant information before you get started.

To be fore armed it is advantageous to have at least a rough idea about how the Cyprus property market works and what the differences are to other parts of Europe especially the U.K. Although the legal system in Cyprus is very similar to the U.K. there are some major differences you should be aware of. If you purchase your cheap Cyprus apartment "off plan" or on a new development you will most likely not receive the deeds to your property for several years hence. Instead when you purchase your cheap Cyprus apartment or luxury villa the developer will draw up a contract stating that you are the owner of that particular apartment or plot. This contract will also constitute the specifications of your property including any fixtures and fittings to be built into the final purchase price.

The reason there are no title deeds for your cheap Cyprus apartment or even (if you are lucky enough) your luxury villa is that there is initially only one deed for the whole piece of land that all the buildings are built upon. When the Cyprus developer purchases the land it is usually transferred to him as one plot with one title deed. Once the development is finished including all the roads services and pavements the government surveyors will check the actual development against the original plans before finally issuing separate title deeds for each property. So eventually that cheap Cyprus apartment will have it's own deeds but in the interim the contract between the developer and yourself entitles you to ownership.

If after buying that cheap Cyprus apartment you then decide to sell it on there is no problem either. The contractor will raise a new contract between himself and your purchaser naming them as the new owners of the property. Whilst this system does work very well and has done so for years there are a few things to bear in mind. The first one is that once the title deeds for your cheap Cyprus apartment or villa are ready to be handed over there is a tax due on them. This is a percentage of the original purchase price of your property and at the time of writing this article a £cy160,000 villa is incuring an eventual deed tax of around £cy5,500. So you should obtain at least some idea of how much more that cheap Cyprus apartment will cost you at the end of the day.

Also remember that contract we talked about? The one you set up with the developer when you buy your cheap Cyprus apartment or luxury Cyprus villa. Well, if you do decide to sell before you have received the title deeds the developer will charge you a premium for changing the names on the contract. Many developers are charging a flat fee of £cy3000! to carry out the service of raising an exact same contract with the only alteration being the insertion of a new name. Once again you should factor this into any budget before you buy your cheap Cyprus apartment or villa.

Whilst these hidden charges are not always eluded to when you first start your Cyprus property search there is nothing illegal about them and they are standard fees. The good news is that if you are aware of them at the outset they could make a great bargaining tool. You would be surprised at how many people are totally unaware of many of these factors until after they have made the the bulk of their payments. By then it's too late and that cheap Cyprus apartment isn't such a bargain after all except to the developer, property agent and Cyprus the tax man. If you do your homework without just diving in you can still save a considerable amount of your hard earned cash and still pick up a cheap Cyprus apartment.