Turkish Cypriot authorities have granted rights to buy property to 2,250 foreign nationals since relaxing its laws regarding the purchase of real estate by foreign nationals in May, according to reports on Monday.

Newspaper Yeni Duzen reported that since the new laws took effect, the number of people being granted the right to buy property has ballooned.

By contrast, throughout the whole of 2024, 6,951 foreign nationals were granted the right, going on to buy 4,410 apartments, 1,186 detached houses, and 568 plots of land.

After the laws were changed, foreign nationals are now allowed to buy two houses or three apartments, with the houses allowed to be set on as much as 3,000 square metres of land.

Previously, they were only allowed to buy one house or apartment each, provided it is on less than 2,500 square metres of land.

Nationals of “countries which recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, thus, Turkish nationals, are now allowed to buy six apartments or three houses each.

The move came a week after two Hungarian nationals became the first to be sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to offences related to the illegal development of Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

At present, the case regarding Israeli property developer Simon Aykut is ongoing, as is the case of a German national who reportedly spoke about selling property in the north to Elam MEP Geadis Geadi during a flight to Larnaca.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz had promised last month that the arrests “will not go unanswered”.

“I would like to express here that the recent work carried out on the Greek Cypriot side towards the business world in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is not in line with good faith. I would also like to express that it is not in line with the spirit of good faith,” he said.

The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, meanwhile, told Yilmaz that “the Greek Cypriot government is doing everything it can to both destroy our economy and undermine our security”.

However, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the arrests are not political, having earlier told journalists that “the Republic of Cyprus is acting within the framework of the rule of law, and the arrests for the usurpation of property concern the protection of basic human rights”.

Turkish Cypriot opposition party the CTP’s foreign relations secretary Fikri Toros told the Cyprus Mail that Turkish Cypriots have been rendered “anxious, intimidated, and threatened” by the arrests.

“These feelings are reviving previous traumas experienced between 1963 and 1974,” he said, adding that Turkish Cypriots “were left with no choice other than having the use of the properties abandoned by Greek Cypriots in one way or another”.

President Nikos Christodoulides had earlier insisted that the arrests “will certainly not stop, no matter what [Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin] Tatar says”, adding that “illegality cannot be justified in any way”, but also somewhat distanced himself from the arrests, insisting that “we do not interfere in the judiciary”.