TechIsland held its first Town Hall discussion in Limassol on Thursday, bringing together senior representatives from Ask Wire, PwC Cyprus, Leptos Estates, Neapolis University Paphos, Bank of Cyprus, Cybarco Development Ltd, SPORTSOFT, PASCAL International Education, Imperio, Lanitis Entertainment Ltd, payabl. and Wargaming for a focused examination of Cyprus’ tightening housing pressures.

The closed session brought key sectors together at a time when supply shortages, affordability concerns and quality-of-living issues increasingly influence the island’s economic competitiveness.

Opening the event, TechIsland’s general manager, Tanya Romanyukha, welcomed the participants and thanked them for joining the organisation’s first Town Hall.

She said that “At TechIsland, we see our role as an organisation as part of a broader effort to drive positive change within the economy and the local community.”

She added that TechIsland’s approach has always been “to support, connect, and collaborate, not to act alone, but to bring people together.”

This, she explained, was precisely why the team wanted to introduce a new Town Hall format.

Romanyukha continued by saying that “across our work, we often see important issues being discussed in silos, each stakeholder having valuable insights, but maybe not in the same room at the same time.”


Therefore, TechIsland wanted to create a space where “open, constructive conversations can happen, where different perspectives meet, and where we can collectively gain a clearer understanding of the challenges, the opportunities ahead and to see where TechIsland might be able to contribute or support in a thoughtful and realistic way.”

She stressed that the goal of the organisation is always measured and balanced engagement.

“Our aim is to engage responsibly and be part of balanced, collaborative efforts toward practical solutions,” she said.

Explaining why housing was chosen as the first theme, she told participants that “it’s a pressing issue for everyone who lives in Cyprus. It shapes daily life, it influences the choices families and individuals make, and it impacts the long-term wellbeing of our society.”
She described the issue as “a complex challenge with many angles, and it requires open dialogue and shared understanding.”

Romanyukha also emphasised that TechIsland sees this Town Hall format as the beginning of a wider series of focused discussions, each bringing stakeholders from different fields together to address systemic issues.

She noted that the purpose was not for TechIsland to prescribe answers, but to host informed, structured conversations where evidence, experience and community needs can align.

She concluded that the session would begin with a presentation by Ask Wire CEO Pavlos Loizou.

As the discussion began, Loizou presented an overview of how rapid population growth, ageing buildings and tourism have put Cyprus’ housing system under pressure.
He said Cyprus gained around 75,000 new residents since 2021 but approved about 43,000 homes in the same period, “many still under construction, mostly high-end, and in the wrong places.”

According to him, around 20,000 arrivals were essential and lower-paid workers, while 55,000 were skilled employees and professionals relocating for jobs with foreign companies and the tech sector.
Together, he said, they created demand for about 30,000 homes, which the market did not deliver.

Loizou said that nearly half of Cyprus’ homes were built before 2000, adding that a significant portion falls into the lowest energy-efficiency categories, with renovation progressing slowly.
He said most newcomers look for small, central apartments, yet new supply remains focused on large family-sized homes.
As the report states, “Cyprus changed its population base but did not change the type of housing it builds.”

Moreover, Loizou added that the construction sector is fragmented, with many small developers and few large ones able to scale up supply.
According to him, the top ten developers account for less than a quarter of total output, while labour shortages and rising material costs limit expansion.
He noted that almost all developers operate on a build-to-sell model rather than build-to-own, leaving Cyprus without “an institutional or capital base for long-term rental portfolios.”

As a result, he said, “Cyprus cannot scale the right kind of supply, rental, affordable, efficient, smaller, within the current market structure.”

Tourism, he warned, has intensified pressures further. Visitor numbers nearly doubled, rising from 2.4 million to around 4 million, creating demand for roughly 37,000 additional tourist beds.
Hotels added only three to four thousand, leaving a gap of over 30,000.
Short-term rentals absorbed the shortfall, shifting around 16,000 regular apartments into tourist use, “of which only around 8,000 are registered.”
He said these are exactly the central, smaller homes residents now struggle to find.

Loizou also mentioned that Cyprus is shaped by five combined pressures, Population, Old stock, Demographics, Supply constraints and Tourism, forming PODcaST.
He said the country must decide whether infrastructure can support up to 1.2 million residents, how new workers will integrate, and whether planning will favour denser development or continued sprawl.

He said these questions now form the core of the debate, asking whether Cyprus intends to keep increasing its population, and whether water, electricity, schools, hospitals and roads can scale accordingly.
He also raised the need for a clear integration framework for new workers and families, and for clarity on whether Cyprus wants compact cities or continued expansion at the edges.

Loizou set out several practical levers, including building a long-term capital base for rental housing, closing the tax gap in the short-term rental market, improving market transparency, financing building retrofits and ensuring affordability across all income levels.
He concluded by saying, “Cyprus must match population reality, housing capacity, and institutional readiness. Without a national direction, housing pressures will continue to escalate.”