10.12.2022
Rising rents and a shortage of apartments for rent will not solve the problem, but will affect the future of the market. This creates problems for Cypriots and makes it difficult to attract foreign residents such as high net worth managers , casino staff (expected to be 500) and hotel workers.
Added to the unsatisfactory problem are students, who may have the greatest financial inability to respond to rising rents.
These and other problems associated with rents are an obstacle to the development of the economy; while the government aims to attract foreign students, skilled foreign labor force and accept Europeans/Ukrainians, due to the current situation this is not possible.
We need to increase the supply of rental units, because in capitalist economies like ours, the level of rent is determined by supply and demand.
The efforts of the LDO and the municipalities are certainly welcome. While this is presented as a solution, the future of these municipalities, in our experience, is not bright and will present more problems than what it is trying to solve.
To increase supply, incentives are needed, which, however, should not burden the state budget (the easiest mistake is to provide financial assistance, grants and subsidies, even in special cases). Perhaps it could start with, for example, 1,000 subsidy applications, but would likely increase to over 10,000, with constant pressure to satisfy as many applicants as possible based on political pressure .
Antonis Luazou FRICS – Antonis Loizou & Associates EPE – real estate appraisers, real estate sellers and development project managers
