A total of 500 new housing units for rent or sale will be created in Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.

“This is an important measure that will help to ease the pressure caused by rising housing demand and will significantly contribute to reducing housing costs. It is a plan long requested by social partners and developed in cooperation with them,” he said.

The housing units, he added, will be offered at affordable prices and will be available for families or singles and primarily target young people based on specific criteria.

In Nicosia, units will be built in the municipality of Latsia-Geri and in Limassol in the areas of Curium-Episkopi, Moni and Amathountas-Ayia Paraskevi. Further units will be created in Oroklini in Larnaca and in Acheleia in the Paphos region.

Construction costs for the projects, built on state-owned land worth more than €7 million, are estimated at around €70 million.

“It is important to note that all the housing plans we have announced are feasible, economically viable and, most importantly, offer hundreds of families and fellow citizens, mainly – I repeat – the younger generation, the opportunity to find a holistic solution to meet their housing needs,” he said.

The state plots will be made available to the private sector through a tender process for construction and with the expertise of the Cyprus land development organisation for the management and allocation of housing units. The rental units will remain state property.

“In total, the current government’s investment in housing policy so far exceeds €300 million,” Christodoulides added.

affordable housing, government housing, interior minister, president, Christodoulides
Construction costs for the project are estimated at around €70 million, while the value of the state-owned land on which the units will be built exceeds €7 million

Christodoulides said that housing remained a key topic on the government’s agenda, emphasising spending on housing was seen “as an investment rather than a cost.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou announced the government’s new strategy for the construction of collective accommodation units as part of broader efforts to support tourism and trade sectors, stressing it would provide housing solutions to personnel in both sectors.

“The difficulty of finding accommodation for workers in several cases constitutes an obstacle to their search for work in these sectors, which does not allow the smooth operation of businesses,” he said.

He said the plan aimed to provide medium and short-term accommodation needs for low and middle-income workers, adapted to their needs, with a core part of the plan being to reduce both the rental units, the parking places and common areas in size.

With these reductions, a three-bedroom apartment of approximately 80m² could accommodate six people, while in collective housing, the same space would accommodate up to 12 workers, Ioannou explained.

As for parking spaces, he said that the plan for the construction of collective housing units provides for one parking space per 24 people, given that the area is served by public transport.

Ioannou added that the plan, set to be published within coming days and to come into effect immediately, may be applied for the construction of collective accommodation units in existing and new residential units, including mixed, commercial and tourist developments or in specific areas.

A housing project similar to those announced by Christodoulides was recently been completed in the Ayios Nicolaos area of Larnaca, supported by the Cyprus Land Development Organisation (Koag), with two and three-bedroom apartments now available for sale.