Six uncomfortable truths about Cyprus real estate: vacant land, incentives and the 2017 tax abolition

Ask Wire says six years of collecting, processing and analysing data show the real estate market is not irrational: it follows, with remarkable consistency, the incentives it is given. In Cyprus the annual immovable property tax was abolished in 2017, while transfers from parents to children are not subject to transfer fees or capital gains tax. That means holding land does not cost zero, but a family can relatively easily keep a property from one generation to the next, waiting for the city, infrastructure and neighbouring developments to raise its value. An empty plot next to a Limassol tower may simply be land whose owner has no compelling reason to hurry, and it may become a car park until it is worth even more.