30.04.2024
The Council of Ministers has submitted a bill to Parliament to reduce the frequency of general property assessments carried out by the Cyprus Land Department from three to five years.
General real estate assessment
Initially, the general assessment of real estate was based on determining the value of real estate on January 1, 1980. This 1980 assessment was used to calculate the annual real estate tax payable to the Department of Revenue and the annual tax due to the community or municipality in which the property was located. Community and municipal councils have the power to levy and set these local taxes. This 1980 assessment is outdated and has no bearing on the value of the property.
(Please note that the annual real estate tax payable to the Department of Revenue was eliminated as of January 1, 2017, but remains in effect for calculating the “local” property tax payable to communities and municipalities.)
As a consequence, the Cyprus Land Department announced in 2011 plans to revaluate all properties on the island starting in 2012, and establish a “new” market value as of 1 January 2013, which will be used for tax purposes.
By October 2014, the Cyprus Land Department had received over 4,600 objections to the revaluation of their properties, with a further approximately 7,000 objections received by Citizen Service Centres. Deputies also reported receiving hundreds of complaints. The number of objections to the revaluation of real estate was so large that the deadline for filing them was extended by four months. In 2018, the Cyprus Land Department updated the values of more than two million properties and repeated this procedure in 2021.
However, according to the bill submitted to Parliament, the next general property assessments carried out by the Cyprus Land Department will be postponed until 2026. Subsequent assessments will be carried out every five years (subject to the bill being approved by Parliament).
