Procedure and Costs involved
February 17, 2009
Buying a property abroad
can be a very satisfying but at the same time
a difficult decision to make
and it is therefore imperative that the proper
legal advice and the correct guidance is obtained
before making this decision.
1 | New Properties
The main difference with buying a
property “off plan” in Cyprus or being
a first time buyer of a property in
Cyprus in comparison to many other
European Countries is that there is not
an automatic issue of Title Deeds as
soon as the property has been
completed and delivered to a buyer.
In some European countries a
separate Title Deed for an individual
house or apartment is given to the
buyer very soon after they have
completed the purchase of their
property. In Cyprus, however, a
Developer/Seller has to apply to the
Cypriot Government for the Deeds to
be issued to a buyer. However, the
Developer/Seller cannot make this
application to the Government
Authorities until he has completed
building the whole project and has
sold all the properties within the
project.
Hence, on an average size project, a
reasonable timescale for the Deeds to
be issued, would be around six years
from the date of delivery of the
property to a buyer. In order for a
buyer’s interest in their purchase to be
safeguarded until the Title Deeds are
issued, each buyer’s purchase
contract is lodged at the Land
Registry Office (L.R.O.) for specific
performance purposes. The L.R.O.
provides a receipt to confirm the
purchase contract has been lodged
at the L.R.O. and this receipt remains
on the L.R.O.’s records until the Deeds
are issued to the buyer or until the
buyer withdraws his contract from
the L.R.O. in the event of the sale of
the property before the deeds are
issued.
By having the purchase contract
deposited at the L.R.O., the buyer not
only secures his/her interest in the
property, but he/she also prevents
the owner of land/vendor from
transferring the property to a third
party without his/her knowledge.
Further, the buyer is given the right to
seek Specific Performance of his/her
contract terms.
In simple terms this means the buyer
can compel the seller to specifically
perform something which he agreed
to do and which is confirmed he
would do within the contract.
FOTOS PITTADJIS