Privately selling apartment

Questions about selling property
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Shazababe2003
Posts: 1
Joined: 21 Sep 2012 00:54

Privately selling apartment

Post by Shazababe2003 »

Hi I was wondering if you could give me any advice;
I inherited my late fathers apartment in limassol in 2007 and have the title deeds to the apartment in mine and my sisters names (50/50). We plan to now sell the apartment and have someone in cyprus who is interested in purchasing it. Could you please advise me on:
1. Do I need to get an evaluation of the property or can we just agree on a price?
2. Do we need to get a solicitor involved or do we just visit the land registry office?
3. What are the tax implications?
4. What would be the best way to do the transaction, given that the purchaser would be in Cyprus (therefore paying in Euros) and we live in the UK (and would need to get the funds moved from our cyprus bank account back to one in the UK(Sterling)
5. Are there any other issues that I should be aware of before proceeding with selling the apartment?

Many thanks for any advice you may have
Sharon
Nigel Howarth
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Posts: 2911
Joined: 24 Oct 2007 14:38
Location: Erimi, Limassol, Cyprus
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Re: Privately selling apartment

Post by Nigel Howarth »

Hi Sharon and welcome to the forum.

You need to get some idea of what the apartment is worth. If you don't want to get a separate valuation, which will cost you a few hundred Euros, you could look on the Internet to see if you can find something similar in the same area for sale, or an estate agent should be able to advise you how much to put it on the market for. (Note that estate agents charge around 5% commission +VAT, but providing you use a registered estate agent, you can use the commission to offset your Capital Gains Tax liability.

As it's a straightforward sale, you could do this via the Land Office. However, I suggest you use a lawyer to make sure everything goes smoothly (just as you would in the UK when selling a property).

You will be liable for Capital Gains Tax. This is calculated at 20% on the profit arising from the sale - and as the property cost you nothing you will be asked to pay 20% on the amount you receive (less registered estate agents fee). And you will be required to supply a tax clearance certificate to the Land Office before the transfer to your buyer can take place.

You will also need to prove that there are no other charges and local taxes outstanding.

The Department of Lands & Surveys has a 'Citizens Charter' that explains the transfer process in detail and the documents that are needed. You can download a copy from http://cdn.cyprus-property-buyers.com/w ... harter.pdf - pages 45 & 46 have the details.

Probably the best way to do the transaction is to have the proceeds (less disbursements) put into you account in Cyprus and then transfer the funds to the UK. Alternatively a lawyer could place the proceeds in a client account and move the money to your account in the UK.

Other issues? Before placing the property with an estate agency, you could advertise it yourself on one of the many free websites (this will save you the agent's commission). If you have no success then place it with an agency - but make sure that your lawyer looks through the agents agreement before signing as some agents have been known to charge even though the property was sold by other means/agent).

The British High Commission in Nicosia publishes a list of lawyers that may help - you can find it at http://ukincyprus.fco.gov.uk/resources/ ... yers-south - Louise Zambartas (who used to answer legal questions on this forum) has her main office in Limassol.

Regards,
Nigel Howarth
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