06.01.2022
In comments accompanying the survey, Delfi Partners & Company stated: “2021 has been a year of correcting the anomalies caused by the pandemic in the market during 2020, with a significant number of deals delayed due to prevailing uncertainty.”
According to a survey conducted by real estate analysts Delfi Analytics, in 2021 the Cyprus property market continued its recovery, with some indicators exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
According to Delfi Analytics, real estate transactions in the first 11 months of 2021 increased by 3.4% compared to the same period in 2019. At the same time, sales documents decreased by 4.2%, while the number of mortgages decreased by 4.4%.
The cost of mortgage loans increased by 82.2%, which is largely due to the significant growth recorded this year in Limassol; this may have been the result of a small number of high-value mortgages
The lack of correlation between the value of mortgages and their total number indicates that a few selected high-value real estate mortgages have skewed the numbers.
Delfi Analytics data shows an increase in demand for used property, with 14,228 transactions registered in November, up 3.4% from 2019 and 26.5% from 2020. In contrast, sales filings through November were down 4.2% compared to 2019.
In the Nicosia area, most indicators were positive for the 11 months, with transfers of ownership (27%) and sales (38%) higher than the corresponding period in 2019. The number of mortgage loans also increased, while they decreased by 15% compared to 2019.
In Limassol, transfers have increased since 2019 (2%) and 2020 (30%). In terms of trade documents, compared to 2020, the growth was 28%; however, there was still an 11% gap in 2019 data. In Limassol, the number of mortgages has slightly increased, and their value has increased dramatically by 300%. This indicates that a small number of mortgages were associated with large loans. It is significant that if in 2019 and 2020 mortgage loans amounted to about 900 million euros, then in 2021 they jumped to 3.2 billion euros.
But 2021 has not been kind to Paphos real estate, at least compared to pre-coronavirus 2019. During the first 11 months, property transfers were down 20% compared to 2019, with sales and mortgages down 35% and 15%, respectively.
Things were better in Larnaca; ownership transfers were down 8% compared to 2019, while sales were up 5%. The number of mortgage loans decreased by 11% compared to 2019, although their value was higher by 0.1%.
Finally, the real estate market in Famagusta moved mostly positively, as both transfers (+12%) and sales documents (+4%) as well as mortgages (+4%) were higher than in 2019.
“In 2022, the course of the pandemic and any new variants of the virus, such as Omicron, will be critical, both for the real estate sector and for the economy as a whole.
We estimate that the trend towards used property will continue to grow as banking institutions and wealth management companies bring more property to market,” said George Mounties, managing partner at Delfi.
