Guidance needed

[George M]

Hello . First I would like to thank all of you who are posting here. I am very grateful for the amount of information founded here . We are an couple from EU , working over 10 years in Cyprus and we are thinking to permanently locate here and get rid of paying rent . Being little bit confused about what we should do next , I would like to know your opinions. We have saved around 50 k and we wonder what's better option for us ..to get a loan from the bank in order to get a house/apartment or better don't get involved with banks and purchase land and build something slowly ( it can be agricultural also if we can fix modular or something similar on it ) . Any kind of advice would be great. Thanks

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello George and welcome to the forum

We bought land in 1992 and built our house when we retired to Cyprus ten years later. We had enough money from the sale of our home in the UK to pay for our house in Cyprus without needing a loan. This enabled us to have a unique home built to our outline design. We've lived in it for 20 years without problems that plague many properties built during the boom years. Our house took two years to build

But prices have risen so much in the last 20 years that our house would cost around €700,000 if we were to build it today - we couldn't afford it.

The benefit of renting is that you can move in from day one, but the downside is that you'll never own the property and it may not meet your needs and aspirations.

There is a third option you could consider - 'rent to buy'. This enables you to buy a home without the need borrow money from a bank. I don't have any details, but I found an article at Rent or Buy Cyprus: Property Choices & Insights that explains it in detail and the pros and cons.

If you're happy where your living, perhaps your landlord would be willing to allow you to buy the property through rent to buy.?

You have €50k for a deposit and the maximum loan you could expect from a bank would be around 80% of the price - and if you were to buy land and build, it would take you many years and you'd be paying rent as well as paying for the house to be built. (I doubt whether €50k is sufficient to buy a residential plot.)

Getting permission to build in an agricultural zone will probably prove impossible. This was banned a few years ago to prevent speculation.

Regards,

[George M]

Hello Nigel and thanks for your detailed advice. Unfortunately the "rent to buy" option is not available. For now we're paying "low price" rent , 700 E for a 2 bedroom in a top area from Limassol but looking in a long term perspective, something needs to be done sooner or later. Most probably getting a loan for an house/apartment looking the most convenable and simple option in our financial situation. Thanks a lot for your advice and we will keep an eye on this very helpful forum