How to Buy Property in Cyprus: The Process, Step by Step

There are seven steps: engage an independent lawyer, complete due diligence, sign a reservation agreement, execute the contract of sale, deposit the contract at the Department of Lands and Surveys within six months, obtain Council of Ministers permission if you are a non-EU national, and transfer the title deeds on completion.

The sequence matters. The lawyer comes first because the due diligence they run — confirming the seller's title, checking for mortgages, memos and other encumbrances at the Land Registry, and verifying planning and building permits — determines whether the transaction should proceed at all. Cyprus operates a common-law system inherited from English law, and contracts are typically drafted in English.

The reservation agreement is a short document under which the buyer pays a holding deposit to take the property off the market while the contract of sale is negotiated. It is commercial practice rather than a statutory requirement, and its terms — particularly whether the deposit is refundable if due diligence fails — should be reviewed by your lawyer before signature.

The contract of sale is the central document. It fixes the price, the payment schedule, the delivery date for a new build, and the seller's obligation to transfer the title deeds. Once signed, the buyer's priority is to lodge it at the Land Registry, which is the subject of the next section.

Depositing a copy of the contract of sale at the Department of Lands and Surveys within six months of signing creates an encumbrance on the property and gives the buyer the remedy of specific performance under the Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law 81(I)/2011.

Specific performance means a court can order the transfer of the property into the buyer's name if the seller refuses or fails to complete — the buyer is not left to claim damages alone. The deposited contract also prevents the seller from selling the same property to someone else or encumbering it while the contract remains in force, and it establishes the buyer's priority against later claims on the title.

The Department of Lands and Surveys (DLS) is the state Land Registry of Cyprus. It maintains the register of immovable property, records contracts and encumbrances, carries out official valuations and effects the final transfer of ownership. Its portal publishes the application forms and fee schedules for each procedure.

Amendments applying to contracts concluded and lodged from 12 December 2023 tightened the process further: the seller must now produce a recent certificate of search, and where the property is mortgaged, the deposit requires written confirmation from the lender or the buyer under the prescribed forms. Your lawyer handles the filing; the point for the buyer is simply that the six-month window is not optional housekeeping — it is the foundation of your legal protection.

No. Stamp duty was abolished with effect from 1 January 2026 by the Stamp Duty (Abolition) Law of 2025, Law 239(I)/2025, so contracts of sale signed from that date onwards bear no stamp duty at all.

Stamp duty was a documentary tax charged on the value stated in a contract, payable by the buyer within a short period of signing. Under the previous regime, contracts up to €5,000 were exempt, the band from €5,001 to €170,000 was charged at 0.15 per cent, the value above €170,000 at 0.20 per cent, and the total was capped at €20,000.

The abolition is not retroactive. Documents executed on or before 31 December 2025 remain subject to the old framework, even if the duty had not been paid by that date — so a buyer completing in 2026 on a contract signed in 2025 should confirm with their lawyer whether an outstanding stamping obligation exists on the older document.

VAT at the standard rate of 19 per cent applies to the purchase of new property in Cyprus, while resales of used buildings are generally exempt; a reduced rate of 5 per cent is available on part of the price of a new home bought as the buyer's primary and permanent residence, subject to strict limits.

Under the rules introduced by the 2023 amendment, the 5 per cent rate applies to the first 130 square metres and the first €350,000 of value, provided the total buildable area does not exceed 190 square metres and the total transaction value does not exceed €475,000. Area or value between the inner and outer thresholds is charged at 19 per cent, and a property that exceeds either outer limit is charged at 19 per cent on the whole price.

The reduced rate carries a use condition: the property must serve as the buyer's permanent residence for ten years. If it is sold or rented out within that period, the buyer must repay the difference between the 5 per cent and 19 per cent rates in proportion to the years remaining. The conditions attach to the application made to the Tax Department, and the current terms should be confirmed there before contract.

A transitional regime preserves the older, more generous rules — 5 per cent on the first 200 square metres with no value cap — for developments whose planning application was submitted by 31 October 2023. How long that relief lasts depends on the building permit. Where the building permit was issued on or before 31 December 2024, the transitional regime ended on 15 June 2026; where it was issued from 1 January 2025, or has not yet been issued, a legislative extension keeps it open until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027 the 2023 rules apply to everyone. Whether a specific unit falls under the old or new regime depends on the project's planning history, so ask the developer for the planning application date and have your lawyer verify it.

Transfer fees are charged by the Department of Lands and Surveys when the title deed is registered in the buyer's name, at 3 per cent on the first €85,000 of the property's value, 5 per cent from €85,001 to €170,000, and 8 per cent above €170,000 — but they are waived entirely where the purchase was subject to VAT, and halved where it was not.

The fees are assessed on the DLS's own market valuation of the property at the date of the contract, which can differ from the contract price. The practical effect of the current exemptions is straightforward: a buyer of a new property who pays VAT — at either the standard or the reduced rate — pays no transfer fees at all, while a buyer of a resale pays the banded fees reduced by 50 per cent.

Title deeds are the registered certificates of ownership issued by the DLS; the transfer of the deed into the buyer's name is the moment ownership passes, and it is the final step of the purchase. On new developments the separate title for an individual unit can follow completion of the project, which is why the deposited contract of sale — carrying specific performance rights — matters in the interim.

Sellers, not buyers, bear a separate levy of 0.4 per cent on disposal proceeds of immovable property, introduced in 2021. It does not change the buyer's arithmetic but occasionally appears in negotiations, so it is worth knowing whose liability it is.

Yes. Under the Immovable Property (Acquisition by Aliens) Law, Cap. 109, a non-EU national needs the permission of the Council of Ministers to acquire immovable property in Cyprus, applied for on Form COMM 145 through the District Administration of the district where the property is located.

EU citizens face no such restriction and buy on the same footing as Cypriots. For non-EU nationals the permission is, in practice, granted as a matter of course to bona fide purchasers of a home: the application is a form-filling exercise handled by your lawyer, there is no application fee, and processing typically takes a few weeks. The permission is generally limited to one dwelling, or a plot of up to approximately 4,000 square metres.

Importantly, the permission gates registration, not contract. A non-EU buyer can sign the contract of sale, deposit it at the Land Registry and even take possession before the permit is issued; the approval is required for the title deed to be transferred into their name. Refusals are rare for a standard residential purchase, but a buyer intending to acquire multiple properties should take advice on structuring before committing.

Independent legal fees in Cyprus are commonly quoted in the range of 1 to 3 per cent of the purchase price plus VAT, agreed with the lawyer at engagement, and DLS filing fees for lodging a contract are modest — of the order of tens of euros per application.

There is no statutory scale for conveyancing fees, so the figure is a market convention rather than a fixed tariff: obtain a written fee quote before instructing, and confirm what it covers — due diligence, contract negotiation, deposit of the contract, the Council of Ministers application where relevant, and attendance at transfer. The lawyer should be independent of the seller and of the developer; it is the single most repeated piece of advice in established Cyprus property practice, and it is sound.

Estate agency fees are conventionally paid by the seller in Cyprus, and buyers of new property deal directly with the developer, so agency costs rarely enter the buyer's budget. Beyond legal fees, the buyer's cost stack is now short: VAT or reduced transfer fees as set out above, no stamp duty on contracts signed from 2026, and no annual immovable property tax, which was abolished in 2017. For a full breakdown with worked examples, see our companion guide to buying costs and taxes.