Filenews 2 July 2025
The Department of Land Registry and Surveying is getting to work after the Parliament voted last Thursday on a proposal for a law to restore the protection of the so-called "enclaved buyers".
As we are informed, the Land Registry will provide personalized guidance for each individual case, in order to promote the necessary procedures on the basis of the new data.
At the same time, on the part of the Ministry of the Interior, it is noted that every possible effort was made to find the best possible solution after the court decision of June 2024 and under the circumstances it seems that the best possible choice was given to the enclaved buyers, which at the same time ensures the constitutionality of the law.
The Minister of the Interior, Konstantinos Ioannou, points out that the cooperation with the Parliament and the parties has brought the desired result, with the contribution of the Legal Service, the Cyprus Bar Association and the Associations of Banks and Credit Acquisition Companies.
Trapped buyers
More specifically, in June 2024, a court decision was issued, which deemed the provisions of the Real Estate Transfer and Mortgage Laws that had been passed in 2015 unconstitutional, resulting in the freezing of the examination process of 9,497 applications.
The resulting legal impasse sounded the alarm to the Ministry of the Interior, which in cooperation with the Parliamentary Committee on Legal, Justice and Public Order and the Legal Service, sought ways and court decisions compatible with the Constitution, in order to provide a solution to the 9,497 stranded buyers.
For this purpose, an ad hoc working group was set up, which included the Department of Land Registry and Surveying, the Legal Service, members of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, the Cyprus Bar Association and the Associations of Banks and Credit Acquisition Companies. The working group investigated various parameters and examined ways to amend the law in a constitutionally and legally sound manner.
Key Modifications
Applications with title deed (4,080 applications): For cases with previous encumbrances, the written consent of the persons or organization that owns the encumbrance is required.
With the secured written consent, the Director of the Department of Lands and Surveys will be able to proceed with the cancellation of these encumbrances, so that the property is transferred in the name of the buyer, regardless of other encumbrances that follow.
The buyer is also given the right in the event that the persons for whose benefit the registered encumbrances are acting abusively and unjustifiably refuse to give written consent and provided that the sale price has been paid in full, to file an application to the Court for an injunction against these persons.
Written consent means the written consent of the persons for whose benefit encumbrances and/or prohibitions apply, including a written waiver from a licensed institution. Applications concerning immovable property, in which there are no encumbrances and/or prohibitions only after the contract of sale, will continue to be examined in accordance with the provisions of the legislation.
Applications without title deed (5,417 applications): For cases where no separate title deed had been issued, the law set a time limit of eight months for the submission of the relevant certificates for their development. Once the necessary evidence has been submitted, a period of two years is set for the issuance of the title deed, which is a necessary prerequisite for the examination of the application.
Submission of new applications: For the submission of new applications, the existence of a title deed of the property has been added as a prerequisite and in case there are previous encumbrances and/or prohibitions on the property, the submission of the written consent of the persons for whose benefit the previous encumbrances are effected or a copy of the submission of an application to the Court for the issuance of a Decree that these persons abusively refuse and unjustifiably giving such consent.
With the entry into force of the law after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic, the Department of Lands and Surveys will proceed to send relevant notifications to the 9,497 buyers/applicants, with which each one will be provided with personalized guidance, based on the stage at which their application is examined. With the letter, the applicant will be informed about the next steps and actions that he/she must take for the purposes of further advancing the procedure.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: To protect bona fide buyers
The Minister of the Interior expressed his satisfaction with the passage of the new legislation, which regulates the issue of stranded buyers, whose applications remained pending after the court decision on the unconstitutionality of the provisions of the law.
It is, as he said, a complex legal issue, which required careful handling from a legal point of view, in order to protect bona fide buyers. Particularly important for the solution of the problem was the alliance with the House of Representatives and all the parliamentary parties, which operated in a spirit of unanimity, recognizing the importance of solving the problem for the citizens. The Minister of the Interior thanked Nikos Tornaritis, Aristos Damianou, Fotini Tsiridou and Panicos Leonidou by name for their constructive participation in the working group.
