As it has been mentioned many times in many outles, Limassol, and Cyprus in general, is experiencing a period of great growth with hundreds of new projects in the planning stage or already under development. Most of these projects are residential (houses, villas, apartments) or commercial (offices and shops).
Lately, however, we are also seeing movement in other property-related areas that will help to further development of the economy, and at the same time reduce unemployment.
The two main sectors that seem to be growing are hotels and student accommodation.
With regards to Limassol hotels, in 2019 we will have in operation, two new five-star beachfront hotels, Park Lane Hotel by MARRIOTT and Amara Hotel by STADEMOS HOTELS PLC.
Limassol is also expected in the near future to have hotels from the international hotel chains SOFITEL, W HOTELS, and the largest casino resort in Europe “City of Dreams Mediterranean”.
Change is also visible in the historic center of Limassol, where it is evident of renewal due to the many investors, both foreigners and Cypriots, who have started buying old preserved real estate for the purpose of restoring them and turning them into boutique hotels. The example of the brand new Sir Paul Hotel is expected to be followed by others.
It is also good to point out that the government, through its various actions and incentive schemes, is helping to develop the hotel sector.
Incentives have been given to increasing the structure factor for land in tourist zones, tax relief for preserved historic buildings, and the option of selling and transferring a building coefficient from preserved historic buildings to new developments in specific areas.
Due to the fact that the Cypriot Technological University is located in the historic center of Limassol, and relatively close to the sea, some investors rent rooms to students with contracts of nine months’ duration. The remaining three months of the summer when the university is closed, rooms are rented to tourists. In this way they achieve higher returns on their investment.
For the creation of student environments the government provides an increase in structure factor and relaxation in terms of the minimum area of the rooms and the required parking spaces.
I have left the issue of cheap rental housing/apartments for the end.
Firstly, the hoteliers realized that, with rising rents, it would be in their best interest to also develop apartments, for the purposes of accommodating their staff, as well as to remain competitive in the labor market and to not spend money on housing their staff, since they could reap the rewards themselves if they took the position of the investor/owner of the rented property.
In addition other investors proceeded to purchase or develop apartments and renting these properties to companies operating in the restaurants and tourist areas sector in order to accommodate their staff in turn.
As bank deposit rates continue to decline, depositors will look for other ways of investing their capital. The above areas provide monthly income through rents, rental income is much higher that than bank interest. The property market appreciation is an additional benefit as long as property prices are rising our investments are also growing.
In conclusion, we see that all real estate-related sectors are growing and attracting much interest. The future is set to be bright, as long as there is professionalism among all parties and the continued support of an investor-friendly environment by the government.