Cyprus Reopens Four Bills to Restrict Foreign Property Buyers

Cyprus lawmakers have reopened four bills that would restrict how much property foreign nationals can buy on the island, after the House of Representatives Interior Committee put them back on the agenda at the first meeting of the new parliamentary session on 2 September. One of the four would cap third-country nationals at a single home or apartment. Together they would also ban sales of agricultural and forest land to foreigners and close the corporate structures that currently keep foreign purchases out of the official statistics.

What is on the table

The four bills come from Disy, Akel and Diko, and were deferred in April before returning this month.

The Diko, Disy and Dipa proposal is the most restrictive for individual buyers. It would limit citizens of third countries to acquiring one home or apartment, and would require that any legal entity buying property be at least 51 per cent owned by EU or EEA citizens or entities. It also bans the sale of forest and agricultural land.

Akel has tabled two proposals through party leader Stefanos Stefanou. They would widen the definition of a foreign-controlled company to capture any organisation with foreign beneficial ownership, ban sales of agricultural and forest land, and prohibit purchases near the ceasefire line or critical infrastructure. Akel would also drop the Cabinet approval requirement entirely for a single apartment or house of up to 200 square metres, extending that exemption to one shop of up to 200 square metres or one office of up to 300 square metres.

A third bill, from Disy MP Nikos Georgiou, is procedural rather than restrictive. It would modernise how applications are filed, allowing submissions through qualified professionals, and tighten transparency and due diligence requirements. The burden would fall on the developers and agents filing the paperwork.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou set out the government's position on 3 September, saying the aim is to regulate land acquisition by foreign nationals more effectively through what he called an effective and substantive checking mechanism. The categories his ministry is looking at are land falling within designated development boundaries, agricultural tracts, land next to the ceasefire line and land near critical infrastructure. Limits on plot size and residential floor area are also under consideration, with the figures still being finalised. Corporate purchases go to separate discussion in October.

The mechanism

Foreign acquisition in the Republic of Cyprus runs through the Acquisition of Immovable Property (Foreigners) Law, backed by the Transfer and Mortgage of Immovable Property Law. Under the current framework most purchases by non-EU nationals require Cabinet approval, granted through the interior ministry.

The gap the bills target is corporate. Property bought through a foreign-owned company registered in Cyprus or another EU member state is recorded in official statistics as a Cypriot or European purchase, and it does not go through the Cabinet approval route that applies to an individual third-country buyer. That is why the headline numbers in circulation are so far apart. An auditor-general report cited in parliament puts non-EU nationals at over a quarter of all property sales in 2026, while an Akel MP argued that at least one in two sales contracts involves foreign nationals once beneficial ownership is traced.

What it means for a foreign buyer

If the Diko, Disy and Dipa bill passes as drafted, a non-EU buyer would be able to hold one residential unit, not a portfolio. Anyone planning a second purchase would need to complete before the law changes or restructure through an entity that is majority EU or EEA owned. The 51 per cent test applies to the entity, not to the individual behind it.

The agricultural and forest land ban appears in two of the three substantive bills, which makes it the most likely provision to survive committee. Buyers holding land in those categories, or with contracts pending on them, are the most exposed. The Georgiou bill would also raise the documentary burden on buyers, where title and deposit problems have historically concentrated.

The Akel exemption is the one piece that would make life easier. Removing Cabinet approval for a single unit of up to 200 square metres would strip months out of a straightforward apartment purchase, currently the slowest step for a third-country buyer.

Context

Foreign demand is why this is back before the committee. Foreign buyers accounted for 41.3 per cent of all sales contracts in the first seven months of 2026, up from 39.2 per cent across 2025, on 4,980 contracts. July alone produced 829 foreign-buyer contracts, a record month. Purchases by foreign buyers rose 20.3 per cent year on year against 14.1 per cent growth in the market as a whole. Non-EU purchasers identified in the auditor-general's report came principally from Lebanon, Israel, Russia and China.

The underlying market is still expanding. Department of Lands and Surveys figures show 1,241 sales contracts filed in August 2026, up 10 per cent on August 2025, with Larnaca up 35 per cent and Paphos up 20 per cent while Limassol fell 5 per cent. Contracts for the first eight months reached 13,288.

None of the four bills has passed. They sit at committee stage, the corporate ownership question is deferred to October, and the government has not tabled a bill of its own. Nothing changes for a buyer today, but the direction of travel across all four texts is toward fewer units, tighter entity tests and less land.