in-cyprus 14 May 2023 - by Constantinos Tsintas
A wave of foreign investors is flooding occupied North Cyprus, involving mostly Russians, Ukrainians, Israelis but also Iranians, according to a Philenews report, further noting that Turkish land development companies remain overwhelmingly at the helm of this construction fever.
The vast majority of the plots bought and sold through fast track illegal procedures, are Greek Cypriot owned properties, with sale transactions over the past couple of years estimated at over 7 thousand, a new reality forging de facto situations on the ground, as Turkey is proceeding with almost daily violations of the status quo in the fenced off city of Famagusta.
Most of the 2,672 ‘licenses’ to acquire plots in the occupied territories in 2022 were granted to Israeli citizens, as Turkish-Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi writes, with 2 thousand companies in the occupied territories controlled by Israeli shareholders.
25 thousand acres of land have been bought through these companies, to a great extent involving farmland in the occupied Karpass peninsula.
The same Turkish Cypriot sources say that 2 thousand acres have also been bought in the Lefke area for development, while land and property sales are also up over the past year in the occupied Kyrenia and Trikomo areas, with attention now focusing on Famagusta, with reports on the impending illegal settlement of the fenced off city now peaking and converging.
Halkin Sesi notes that a new community has been created in occupied Trikomo with apartment blocks, homes and services, such as supermarkets and cafeterias. It has mostly been built on Greek-Cypriot owned farmland and buyers are foreign citizens.
This large scale work, dubbed ‘New Larnaca’ has been undertaken by Turkish land developers Noyanlar, founded in 1973, a year before the Turkish invasion.
The price of a small fully furnished apartment in the area is estimated at around €100,000.
Noyanlar, who now has offices in occupied Famagusta was almost bought by Iranians recently, an aggressive attempt by the Tehran based businessmen who bought apartments in Trikomo, but complained that they never received ‘title deeds’.
Russians, Israelis and Iranians are now the top players in occupied Cyprus investments, while the British community already settled there, is facing increasing Brexit complications.
In addition, following western sanctions, Russians are turning towards the occupied North for land development and are also expected to transfer deposits, as sanctions cannot be applied there.
The Russian oligarchs activity is already under scrutiny by Washington and Brussels, while Cyprus put the issue of Israeli investors to Tel Aviv, during a meeting between President Christodoulides and Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this week.
