How to buy property in Cyprus, step by step

This page explains the general rules as published by the Cyprus authorities on the date shown. Rates, thresholds and procedures change, and your position depends on facts we do not know. Before you act, confirm the figures with the Tax Department or the Department of Lands and Surveys and take advice from a lawyer registered with the Cyprus Bar Association or a licensed accountant.

What has to be in place before you start#

Three things decide how the rest of the purchase runs.

• Your budget, including the costs on top of the price. Transfer fees, VAT where it applies and professional fees are set out on our costs of buying property in Cyprus page. Stamp duty is no longer one of them: Law 239(I)/2025 repealed the Stamp Duty Laws from 1 January 2026.⁸
• Your right to acquire the property. Under the Acquisition of Immovable Property (Aliens) Law, Cap. 109, an αλλοδαπός (alien) needs the prior permission of the Council of Ministers to acquire immovable property, and the law's definition of that word excludes citizens of EU and EEA member states and companies established in them.⁶ If you are not an EU or EEA citizen, ask the district office of the Ministry of Interior and your lawyer what applies to you before you pay anything.
• Your own lawyer. Instruct a lawyer registered with the Cyprus Bar Association who acts for you alone, not the lawyer proposed by the seller, the developer or the agent. The lawyer runs the searches described below and holds your money until the conditions in the contract are met.

If you are buying with a loan, get the lender's written terms before you sign a reservation. A mortgage offer usually depends on a valuation and on the state of the title, and both take time.

Working with a licensed agent, and how to check the licence#

Estate agency in Cyprus is regulated by the Real Estate Agents Law, N. 71(I)/2010.⁷ Only a person registered with the Real Estate Agents Registration Council and holding a current licence may advertise, promote, propose or negotiate the sale or letting of property for someone else in the course of business. An unregistered person who does that work commits a criminal offence.

Two practical consequences for a buyer:

1. Ask for the agent's registration number and check it against the Council's public register before you hand over any money or personal data. A licence also means an office and professional indemnity insurance.
2. Section 23 of the law requires every document or advertisement a licensed agent uses in the course of the profession to carry the words αδειούχος κτηματομεσίτης (licensed estate agent) followed by the registration number and the licence number.⁷ An advert that carries no such numbers is a warning sign, not a bargain.

You are not obliged to use an agent at all. Cyprus Property Network is an independent publisher and does not sell, market or introduce property, so nothing on this site is an offer.

Reservation and the reservation deposit#

A reservation agreement is a private contract that takes the property off the market for a fixed period while the legal checks are done. It is not the sale contract and it does not transfer anything.

Before you sign one, put in writing what the deposit buys, how long the reservation lasts, and in exactly which circumstances the money is returned to you. The usual sticking point is what happens when the searches reveal a problem, so say plainly that the deposit is refunded in full if the seller cannot deliver clear title on the terms already discussed. Pay into your lawyer's client account rather than to an individual where you can.

Legal checks: searches, encumbrances, planning and building permits#

Your lawyer's search at the district Land Registry office establishes who owns the property, whether a separate title deed exists for the unit, and what is registered against it. Mortgages, memos from creditors, court orders, rights of way and earlier deposited sale contracts all bind the property, not the person who created them.

The amended Sale of Property (Specific Performance) Law, N. 132(I)/2023, in force from 12 December 2023, adds a protection at this stage: the seller has to produce "a Search Certificate of the immovable property that is the subject of the Contract and which is not more than five (5) working days from the date of conclusion of the Contract" (Department of Lands and Surveys).⁴ Read that certificate yourself rather than accepting a summary of it.

Separately, ask to see the planning permit, the building permit and the certificate of final approval, and check that what stands on the ground matches what was approved. Unapproved additions are one of the common reasons a separate title deed cannot be issued. Our Cyprus title deeds explained page covers that problem in detail.

The sale contract and lodging it under the Specific Performance law#

The sale contract is signed and then deposited at the district Land Registry office. It is no longer stamped first: the Tax Department states that Law 239(I)/2025 repealed the Stamp Duty Laws 1963 to 2025 from 1 January 2026.⁸ The Department of Lands and Surveys asks for stamping only where the contract "έχει υπογραφεί έστω και από έναν συμβαλλόμενο πριν από την 1/1/2026", that is, where at least one party signed it before 1 January 2026.²

The Department states that the deposit "πρέπει να γίνει εντός έξι (6) μηνών από την ημερομηνία της υπογραφής της", within six months of signing unless a court order allows a late deposit, and that the fee for depositing the contract is €50.00.² Deposit within that period is a condition of the Specific Performance protection.

Depositing matters because the Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law, N. 81(I)/2011, then applies.¹ According to the Department of Lands and Surveys, deposit means that no later contract on the same unit can be accepted; that you may apply to the court for an order registering the property in your name if the seller does not perform; that you may assign your rights to a third party or charge them to a lender; that you learn the ratio of your unit's value to the value of the whole development; and that the contract becomes "an encumbrance (charge in rem) on the property, which has a priority order in relation to other charges in rem, according to the date of its deposit".

Missing the deadline has a direct cost. In the Department's words: "If you do not deposit the SLC with the DLS within six (6) months from the date of its signing ... you will be required to pay the transfer fees with an increase of ten percent (10%)."¹

If it comes to court, an order for specific performance has its own time limit. The Department gives "One (1) year expiry date for its deposit to the Department of Lands and Surveys from its date of issue", with a fee of €10.00 to accept the application and €5.00 per title deed per owner.³

Monthly figures on how many contracts of sale are deposited across Cyprus are published on contracts of sale data for Cyprus.

Payment, transfer at the district Land Registry office and possession#

Transfer happens at the district Land Registry office for the area where the property lies, with both parties present or represented under a certified power of attorney. The Department asks for evidence that local charges have been settled, including receipts from the municipality or community council, the sewerage board and the water board, and a certificate from the Tax Department.

Transfer fees are paid at this point. They are charged in bands on the value of the property, with a 50% reduction, and where value added tax was charged on the same transaction no transfer fee is collected at all.⁵ The reduction is not granted where the seller acquired the property through a sale procedure under Parts VI and VIA of the Transfer and Mortgage Law No. 9/1965, so ask whether the property has been through a forced sale.⁵ The bands and the conditions are on the costs of buying property in Cyprus page.

Possession is a matter for the contract. On a resale with a deed in place, keys and registration usually happen together. On a new build, delivery comes first and registration can follow years later, which is why the deposited contract does the protective work in the meantime.

After completion: title deed, utilities and the annual costs#

Once the deed is registered in your name, the Land Registry issues a certificate of registration for the property. Keep it, along with the deposited contract and its deposit receipt, the payment receipts and the approvals, because a future buyer's lawyer will ask for all of them.

Then move the electricity, water and any telecommunications accounts into your name, register with the community or municipality, and, in a shared building, join the management committee and start paying the communal charges. Owning property also brings annual charges from the local authority and the sewerage board and, if you let the property, tax on the rent. Confirm the current rates and deadlines with the authority concerned or the Tax Department directly, because they change.