As it is known, the church is the leading private real-estate agent in entire Cyprus. Dealing with it for obtaining a real estate, yet might appear somewhat difficult, or even impossible, in cases. The Bank of Cyprus, meanwhile, is a wonderful destination for bargain-hunters. The bank is the second-largest real-estate agent in the whole island and offers far not bad conditions. However, as the mass foreclosures are new to Cypriot people, the public quite often appears critical when eviction orders are suspended of people who owe the bank great sums of money. Additionally, this enmity extends to those who seek out bargains off the backs of these people. A bright example was observed several days ago when the bank had to suspend an eviction order to a certain woman who owned the bank a large sum of money (about €80,000). Her luxury villa with an immense swimming pool in front of it (the total worth is calculated €300,000) situated in Limassol was intended to be put on sale in near future. The house owner actually spends annually only a couple of months here, while the rest of the year she spends in her motherland Romania. When politicians and some other active representatives of the organization against such foreclosures appeared right in front of the house with their protest, the bank representatives submitted some facts and details on the bargain. As it turned out, the bank thought no one lived in the house as the eviction order had to be posted on the door cause no one opened the door. Moreover, the house owner himself bought the property with a loan from Bank of Cyprus. With the interest rate counted, the debt reached €94,000.

However, if you got interested in obtaining this house like plenty of other bargain-hunters, you are likely to stay disappointed just like they did. The startling price tag set on this huge yet somewhat tasteless construction is roughly €9.7m! Just to have a clear image on this astronomical price, we’ll tell you can buy an entire island with three luxury villas in it in Belize. Additionally, any of the 120 properties including as finished, so half-constructed houses, apartments, business areas, etc. offered in Remu website costs much more than it is worth. But who would agree to pay about €34m for an unfinished mall in Cyprus when a huge castle in France is sold at only €1.2m!
Surely the real estate market in Cyprus is making little steps toward stabilization, yet everything is not so good, yet. According to Nigel Howarth, a famous property expert, the biggest mistake the Bank of Cyprus makes is the offload of unfinished properties with commercial developments in particular. What should the bank do to avoid the total €1.3bn-worth assets for properties it has faced now, is chasing the developers who did not pay their mortgages when they were able to. Additionally, the bank has to constantly invest to maintain the real estates so that they don’t lose their price. Now, when everything is irrevocable, the bank has to foreclose them.
Anyway, due to the good news spread by the Central Bank of Cyprus concerning the significant recovery of real estate prices expected in the near future, the asset quality of Cypriot banks is believed to improve. As Moody stated, the construction industry in the country will be supported while the strategic defaulters will be motivated to repay the mortgages. This way banks will record very little or practically no losses.
As we have already stated, the property market of Cyprus showed certain signs of recovery already last year due to the incentives the government provided the property buyers with. During 2016 (especially the third quarter), it was accounted that property transactions rose forty-three percent.