Akel raised an issue that nobody has ever dared talk about at last weekend’s party conference – the unregulated and uncontrolled sale of real estate to third country nationals. It was the first time a party presented this as a problem in the hope that there would be some debate, but the warning was completely ignored.

Big land developers, who have great influence over the parties, close ties with the government and advertise in the media, would not approve of such a debate because they rely almost exclusively on foreign buyers, without whom their projects would never take off. It was the golden passports that funded Limassol’s high-rise buildings and luxury villas, but now these have stopped, the authorities have come up with golden visas that entitle a third country national who invests a minimum of €300,000 in a home to permanent residence.

While this is beneficial to the economy, it has negative social consequences, the most obvious being the constantly rising cost of housing for the local population. In Limassol, for example, families on local wages cannot afford the rents, let alone the price of buying a flat. There is also a high environmental cost, with more and more of the countryside and coastal areas being covered in concrete. The latest craze is the creation of marinas, which allows developers to build more high-priced holiday villas for foreign buyers.

Akel, at the risk of being accused of anti-Semitism, expressed concern about what it called large-scale ‘targeted purchases’ of land by Israelis, creating gated communities in Larnaca and Limassol. Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou said that recently “there have been targeted purchases and in Limassol and Larnaca specific areas are being bought and closed areas created, almost inaccessible to anyone other than Israeli nationals.”

It is not only Israelis who are buying property in Cyprus. According to interior ministry records of property purchases from 2021 to the end of 2024, Britons have bought the most properties followed by Russians, with Israelis in third position. The issue is not the Israelis but the continuous sale of Cyprus land and properties to third country nationals. Cyprus is a small place, especially with 40 per cent of its territory under occupation, and has to adopt a much more measured approach on property sales, which cannot be a free for all, because this helps a few developers make large amounts of money.

Akel has prepared a couple of bills aimed at regulating property sales to third country nationals. This is a very important issue with many repercussions that cannot be left to one party to tackle. The government must take the initiative, study what is going on and draft a comprehensive plan to protect the island. Perhaps it should look at how countries like Spain and Italy have dealt with the same problem and follow their example. It may anger a few large developers but it should consider the interests of the rest of the population.