Guide to buying property in Cyprus

The Department of Lands and Surveys (DLS) started its operations in 1858. Cyprus uses a system of registration of title: the registered person is the undisputed owner, subject to the Director's power to correct errors or omissions in certain circumstances and the power of the courts to order the amendment or cancellation of a registration.

The DLS operates six District Land Offices, one for each district. Under special legislation, the Keryneia and Ammochostos (Famagusta) offices are temporarily based in Nicosia and Paralimni, because their records and archives remain in the possession of the occupying forces. The District Land Offices examine and process the applications and declarations submitted to the DLS.

The DLS portal has sections for applications and e-services. A transfer by sale is completed at a District Lands Office, by appointment (see below).

The regions of Cyprus are either coastal or close to the sea. Nicosia and Limassol are cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Larnaca and Paphos are more relaxed. They offer different options for climate, family life, housing availability and safety.

The main cities in Cyprus show notable contrasts in property values. The table below compares median residential property prices based on active listings on DevelopersCyprus as of November 2026.

Cyprus offers an excellent variety of properties, including villas and detached houses for sale, apartments, penthouses and land for your own development projects. Check our listings for all the details.

The two professionals you need are a real estate agent and a lawyer.

The real estate agent knows the market and the developers. An estate agent in Cyprus must be registered with the Estate Agents Registration Council and hold a current annual license, and the law makes a few exceptions. An agreement that engages an agent who is not registered or has no current annual license is void.

The lawyer (or law firm) helps with the documents, follows the legal process and protects your rights. He or she explains the relevant law and helps you avoid problems. The lawyer carries out due diligence too, for example with a Land Registry search certificate that shows the encumbrances and prohibitions on the property.

A currency exchange specialist can help with money transfers from abroad. Cyprus banks offer currency exchange too; a specialist may offer better rates on large transfers.

You can buy real estate in Cyprus without visiting, through local professionals and a power of attorney. It lets a person you choose, for example your lawyer, act for you in the purchase and at the transfer.

A power of attorney can be special, for a particular transaction, or general. At the Land Registry, a general power of attorney has a €50 filing fee and a special one is free. Your signature on it must be duly certified.

Signing the power of attorney abroad

If you sign abroad, one way is to sign before a consul at a Cyprus embassy or consulate. The consul certifies that the signature is yours, not the content of the document.

For a document signed in a country that is a party to the Hague Convention, an apostille is another way. A power of attorney is a private document, so a notary there certifies your signature first, and the apostille covers that certification. Where a country outside the EU is not a party, the document needs diplomatic certification. Ask the Cyprus embassy or consulate which way applies to you.

The contract of sale is the central point in the agreement. The lawyer should check that the contract is drafted clearly, deals with your personal situation and contains the points mentioned above.

The Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law 81(I)/2011 protects a property buyer in Cyprus if the seller does not meet the sale contract.

Depositing the contract

Depositing the sale contract at the District Lands Office of the district where the property is brings it under this law. For the deposit to be accepted, the property must be registered in the name of at least one seller, and the contract must be in writing, identify the parties and the property, state the price and be signed by all parties. The law sets further conditions for a part of a co-owned property.

For the Lands Office to accept it, the contract must be deposited within six months of signing. If no seller is registered as the owner during those six months, it can be deposited within six months of the date one of them is registered. On an application, a court can allow a late deposit of a contract that is still in force, where it finds this just and reasonable to protect the buyer.

Asking the court for specific performance

If the seller does not meet the contract, you can ask the court for an order of specific performance. The claim must be brought within the limitation period for breach of contract, and, as a rule, the contract must have been deposited.

For a written contract that was not deposited, or an oral one, the court may still make the order if it finds it just and reasonable and the rights of third parties under earlier encumbrances or prohibitions are not affected. The contract must identify the parties and the property, and the property must be registered in the name of at least one seller.

After the court order

Once you have the order, you must apply to the District Lands Office for the registration of the property, and take the steps it needs, within one year of the order. Otherwise the right to specific performance ends. The court can renew the order for up to a year at a time, where it finds this just and reasonable, on an application filed before the order expires.

Stamp duty was repealed from 1 January 2026. A contract signed by at least one party by 31 December 2025 is still subject to stamp duty under the old law.

Either party can deposit the contract at the District Lands Office. So can the buyer's lawyer, the registered estate agent who mediated in the sale (with the estate agent's declaration), or another proxy of the parties.

For the transfer, the Land Registry needs a tax clearance certificate, form N313, for capital gains tax, immovable property tax and the 0.4% levy, and certificates that local taxes and fees are paid. For more details, see below.

When the property is delivered, the buyer connects the utilities (water, electricity, telephone).

Depositing the contract of sale at the District Lands Office brings in the Specific Performance Law, which aims to protect the buyer (see above).

The seller and the buyer ("the parties") transfer the property at a District Lands Office. They submit the documents at the office they choose. When the office has checked that the documents are valid and complete, it tells them the date and time of the appointment by telephone or e-mail. The Department of Lands and Surveys advises buyers not to pay the full price before the title deed is transferred to them.

On the day of the transfer, the parties show their original identity card, ARC or passport, or other proof of identity. They can act through a representative, such as their lawyer, under a power of attorney with a certified signature.

The buyer pays the transfer fees to the DLS when the property is transferred into the buyer's name (see the costs above).

No transfer fee is charged where VAT is charged on the same sale of the same property; the DLS asks for a certificate from the VAT service. If the Director is not satisfied that the declared price on which VAT was charged is the market value at the date the sale was agreed, he may charge the fee on the market value, less the fee that would have been due on the declared price.

If a completed property has no title deed yet, find out why it has not been issued. The Department of Lands and Surveys says a unit under construction cannot have a title deed, and advises buyers not to pay the full price before the title deed is transferred to them.

A search certificate from the Land Registry with encumbrances and prohibitions shows the mortgages and other encumbrances on the property and any prohibitions against the owner, such as a bankruptcy order. Ask the seller for one: only the owner or another interested person can apply for it.

Buying with a sale contract

Where the title deed cannot be transferred yet, the Department of Lands and Surveys recommends signing a sale contract and depositing it at the District Lands Office. The deposit brings in the Specific Performance Law, which aims to protect the buyer if the seller does not meet the contract (see above).

Paying off the seller's mortgage

For a sale contract deposited before 12 December 2023, where a mortgage was deposited first, the buyer can pay the mortgage lender, on the repayment terms of the loan, the part of the debt that relates to the property, and the lender must accept it as payment against the debt. The buyer's contract then ranks ahead of that mortgage.

For a contract concluded or deposited before the 2011 law took effect, this route needs the written consent of the seller and the lender.

Contracts since 12 December 2023

Where the only encumbrances are earlier deposited mortgages or contracts and the registered owner is under no prohibition, the Lands Office accepts the contract only with Form A or Form C.

Form A is a written statement of each mortgage lender and the seller, which the buyer signs too. It names an amount and the seller's bank account; in the form template, the amount is 95% of the contract price, including any advance the seller received at signing. Form C is the buyer's declaration that he or she wants to deposit without Form A.

When the amount in Form A is paid into the seller's account, the lender must accept it, issues a payment confirmation (Form B) and releases the property from the mortgage. The property can then be transferred to the buyer's name, whatever encumbrances or prohibitions rank after the contract.

The search certificate in the contract

For a contract concluded after 12 December 2023, the seller must include in the contract a search certificate of the property dated no more than five working days from the signing. The Director of Lands and Surveys may fine a seller who does not up to €10,000, after notice by registered letter and five working days to reply.

Failing to do so is a criminal offence too, with up to two years in prison or a fine of up to €5,000, or both.

VAT at the standard rate of 19% is charged when a business sells a new building, with its land, before its first occupation, where the planning application was filed after 1 May 2004. First occupation means systematic use for at least 18 months, such as letting or the owner's own use. A home sold after its first occupation is exempt from VAT.

A person who buys or builds a new home to use as their main and permanent residence in Cyprus can apply for VAT at 5% on the first 130 sq m of buildable area, up to a value of €350,000. VAT at 19% applies to the rest of the price. The 5% applies only if the total value of the transaction does not exceed €475,000 and the total buildable area does not exceed 190 sq m.

Applying for the 5% rate

Apply before you take possession of the home, or at any stage of construction if you build it. The Tax Commissioner can accept an application up to 12 months after you take possession only for good reason.

If the home stops being your main residence within ten years, you must tell the Commissioner within 30 days and pay back part of the VAT difference, with some exceptions. The VAT on property page has the details.

Other conditions for the 5% rate

For a person with a disability, the 5% applies to the first 190 sq m of buildable area, whatever the total area. For a family with four or more children, the total area allowed rises by 15 sq m for each child after the third. Children here are unmarried children under 18 and children who cannot support themselves and live with the applicant.

The buyer must be 18 or over on the date of the application and must have no other home in Cyprus acquired at the reduced rate. The VAT on property page sets out the other conditions.

If you take a mortgage, you pay the Land Registry 1% of the amount borrowed, interest excluded, to register it. When the mortgage secures a future or conditional obligation, such as a loan paid out in instalments, the 1% is calculated on the maximum amount stated in the mortgage. A lower fee applies when existing mortgages are cancelled and a new one is registered on the same day for the same purpose.

The immovable property tax was abolished in Cyprus in January 2017.

There is no inheritance tax in Cyprus.