One year after the completion of the government's Amnesty Urban Plan (June 23, 2025), the initiative designed to give a breath of fresh air to thousands of owners through the legalization of illegal constructions and to feed state funds for social housing policy, is trapped in the bureaucracy of the Provincial Local Government Organizations (EOA).
The plan concerned the legalization of small-scale urban planning deviations or building factor exceedances in licensed developments (with permits and implementation of irregularities before September 13, 2024), allowing citizens to secure Approval Certificates and Title Deeds.
Of the total 2,638 applications submitted nationwide, the vast majority [2,495 applications (88%)] concern residential units, followed by commercial units with 155 applications (5.5%), office with 57 applications (2%) and entertainment/catering developments with 55 applications (1.9%). Of all these, 1,791 (48%) are still pending.
The irregularities mainly concern additions and conversions with an increase in the building factor and small-scale urban planning arbitrariness, such as pergolas, covered terraces, reduced distance from the border, exceeding the coverage rate, the maximum permitted height, the number of floors of main and auxiliary buildings.
It is noted that the largest number of applications was submitted to the District Local Government Organization (EOA) of Nicosia: 979 applications (37%). In the rest of the districts, 712 applications (27%) were submitted to the Limassol EOA, 484 applications (18.3%) to the Paphos EOA, 301 applications (11.5%) to the Larnaca EOA and 162 applications (6.2%) to the Famagusta EOA.
The picture that emerges from the response letters of the five EOAs to the Ministry of Interior reflects a huge discrepancy in effectiveness.
An example to follow is the EOA of Nicosia
The EOA Nicosia is the bright exception. Although it received the largest volume of applications nationwide (979 applications), it has already managed to process 62% (611 cases) and is committed in writing to fully complete the remaining 368 applications by the end of this year.
Despite the objective difficulties, which mainly have to do with the significant burden on the human resources of the Organization, as the staffing of the organic positions has not been completed, nor the necessary training of the staff, the EOA of Nicosia continues to make every effort for the rapid completion of all pending applications of the plan, in parallel with the timely management of the other obligations and priorities assigned to it.
According to the Organization, progress with the examination of applications has been achieved despite the fact that since the start of operation of the EOAs, the Nicosia Organization has been called upon to simultaneously manage an extremely wide range of responsibilities and priorities, many of which were set by the Ministry of Interior, the Department of Urban Planning and other involved state Services.
The excuses of the other EOAs
The other Organizations put forward a series of excuses in their letters to justify the delays.
The EOA Limassol provocatively admits that amnesty applications were not prioritized, as new developments and the examination of applications before 1/7/2024 were prioritized. He states that the examination of the 686 pending issues will begin in September 2026 with the recruitment of staff with the status of fixed-term employees.
In particular, the EOA emphasizes that applications for the urban planning amnesty were not given immediate priority, as it considers it more important to process new applications, through which the development of the Limassol district is further boosted and national wealth is produced. The intention of the EOA Limassol is that the study of applications for urban amnesty should be carried out by a joint urban planning and building licensing team for faster completion.
For its part, the Paphos EOA cites an increased workload and estimates that it will take a whole year more to examine the 388 pending applications. It is noted that the Organization received a total of 484 applications. The pending issues also include the payment of the provided compensation, in order to enable the completion of the process and the issuance of the relevant permits.
The EOA of Famagusta states that from August 1, 2026, it implemented a new examination policy with a chronological order of receipt of applications by category of development, claiming that the 155 pending issues will be forwarded soon. The Agency received a total of 162 applications.
The Larnaca EOA notes that it has appointed a person responsible exclusively for amnesty applications, having examined 107 out of 301 applications. According to the Organization, every effort is being made to faster process all relevant pending urban planning applications and to improve service to citizens.
Entrapment of citizens
Thousands of owners remain hostages, as without legalization they cannot transfer real estate to their children, sell homes or business premises, nor secure operating licenses for commercial premises and restaurants.
It is noted that citizens have paid the application examination fee for a year now. Some NOAs have used these revenues for overtime, while others leave applications pending. Since the fee is rewarding, citizens could have a short answer to be able to take their next steps.
Millions lost for affordable housing
In addition to the problems faced by the owners, the obstruction of the EOAs deals a heavy blow to the social housing policy of the state.
Under the Urban Planning Amnesty Scheme, 90% of the compensation paid by applicants for the legalization of arbitrariness is transferred directly to the Special Affordable Housing Fund of the Cyprus Land Development Agency (KOAG).
While the government initially estimated revenues of €5.3 million, final data show that the minimum amount expected to flow into the KOAG currently exceeds €4 million. These vital funds to strengthen housing programs remain uncollected because NNRAs are slow to issue the relevant approvals and calculate the compensations.
New amnesty for leisure centers in the spotlight
At a time when the existing Urban Amnesty Plan is stalling in the offices of most EOAs, the president of the EOA Famagusta, Giannis Karousos, submitted a proposal to the Minister of the Interior to announce a new urban planning amnesty process, which will specifically concern recreation centers. According to Mr. Karousos, many recreation centers have been facing serious licensing problems for years.
The proposal also provides: Demolition of arbitrary interventions on state or carpet land, payment of compensation for additional construction or missing parking spaces and utilization of these amounts by municipalities for projects in tourist areas.
