Property sales (as measured by the number of sale contracts deposited at Land Registry offices) fell in October 2021 compared to October 2020 following seven months of positive growth.
The only district that reported a rise in sales was Nicosia, the capital; up 9% compared to October last year.
Property sales in Famagusta were down 43% and in Limassol they fell by 24%. Meanwhile, sales in Paphos and Larnaca recorded falls of 16% and 6% respectively.
Overall, sales were down 14% compared to October 2020.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite the overall 14% fall in sales, property sales in Nicosia during the first ten months of 2021 have increased beyond the numbers sold in pre-COVID 2019 during the same period.
As the Cyprus Central Bank noted in its Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) report for Q1, which it published last month, “Since the beginning of the pandemic, the real estate market goes through a period of adjustment, which is due, inter-alia, to the shift in the preferences of buyers and investors towards apartments or smaller and cheaper houses.”
Similar sentiments were expressed recently by WiREs’ CEO Pavlos Loizou who said “There is a significant mismatch between supply and demand, which is resulting in imbalances across asset classes.
“This mismatch is causing a significant increase in prices for specific properties, while for other types of property prices are decreasing as there is a lack of demand.”
