Can I buy property in Cyprus?

• When: after you sign the contract of sale. A copy of the contract is one of the documents asked for, and the law lets you deposit the contract at the Land Registry meanwhile.
• Where and how: application form COMM 145, handed in at the District Administration of the district where the property is. No fee. The Ministry says applications take between 2 and 3 weeks.
• What you hand in: the contract of sale, a copy of the title deed (or the planning consent where separate deeds are not issued yet), a survey and floor plans, proof that you can pay, copies of your passports, a marriage certificate where it applies, and your Cyprus residence permit if you have one.
• What it is for: the Land Registry asks for the permit when the title is put in your name. A registration made without it is void.
• Companies: a company counts as foreign when half or more of its shares, votes or directors are in non-EU hands, and so does any company formed outside Cyprus. A company formed in an EU state with its seat in the EEA does not.
• Also counted as buying: a lease of more than 33 years. Not counted: property that comes to you by inheritance.

Proposals to tighten these rules were before the House of Representatives in September 2026. We could not confirm that any had become law by 14 November 2026: ask your lawyer whether anything has changed since.

Not by itself. Owning a home shows where you will live; the right to stay comes from a permit. These are the routes the Migration Department publishes. Citizens of the EU have the right to live in Cyprus under the EU's own rules, whether or not they own property.

The investment route has more conditions than fit a table: the money must come from abroad, you may not be employed in Cyprus, and the permit is lost if the home is sold and not replaced. Read the Migration Department's own page, linked below, before you rely on it.

• Transfer fees on a resale, paid by the buyer when the title passes: 3% of the first €85,000, 5% of the next €85,000 and 8% of the rest, then halved. Each buyer is charged on their own share.
• VAT instead of transfer fees on a new property: 19%, or 5% on the first 130 m² of a home you will live in as your main home, on up to €350,000 of its value, when the whole home is no larger than 190 m² and costs no more than €475,000.
• Stamp duty: none. It was abolished for contracts signed from 1 January 2026.
• If you borrow: 1% of the loan to register the mortgage at the Land Registry.
• Each year: the national Immovable Property Tax was abolished in 2017. Municipal, sewerage and water charges are set locally and must be paid up before a property can be transferred.
• When you sell: capital gains tax of 20% on the gain, after allowances, is the seller's.

• Ask the seller for a search certificate. It shows who owns the property and what weighs on it: a mortgage, a court order, another contract of sale. Since December 2023 the seller must attach one, no more than five working days old, to the contract.
• Deposit the contract at the Land Registry within six months of signing. It costs €50. From then no later contract for the same property can be accepted, and you can ask a court to have the property registered in your name if the seller does not keep to the contract.
• Do not pay the whole price before the title is in your name. That is the Department's own advice.
• Ask whether the sale carries VAT, and at what rate, before you agree the price.
• A property being built has no title deed yet. The deed can be issued only when the building is finished and certified, which is why the deposited contract matters.

• The Central Bank of Cyprus caps what a bank may lend: 80% of the value of the home you will live in, 70% of any other property. So you need at least 20%, or 30%, of your own.
• The payments on all your loans may take at most 80% of what is left of your income after your living costs (65% if the loan is in a foreign currency).
• Whether a bank lends to someone who lives abroad, and on what terms, is each bank's own decision.

• The Acquisition of Immovable Property (Aliens) Law, Cap. 109: cylaw.org (in Greek)
• Ministry of Interior, "Purchasing Property" (page of 2 October 2024): gov.cy
• European Commission, Your Europe, "Buying a house": europa.eu
• Migration Department, "Immigration Permits for Investors" (18 March 2026): gov.cy
• Migration Department, "Immigration Permits" (12 March 2026) and "Visitors" (13 February 2026): gov.cy
• Department of Lands and Surveys, "Sale / Exchange", "Contract of sale" and its leaflets for buyers: portal.dls.moi.gov.cy
• Tax Department, "VAT and Immovable Property" (8 October 2026), the repeal of the Stamp Duty Laws (announcement of 8 January 2026) and "Capital gains tax" (11 November 2026): gov.cy (in Greek)
• Central Bank of Cyprus, Annual Report 2025, the lending limits in force: centralbank.cy (PDF)

This page is information, not legal advice. It says what the official pages said on the day it was checked; rules change, and your own case can differ. A lawyer registered in Cyprus confirms it before you sign anything.