More than 4,100 residential units are expected to be added to the market over the next three years through incentive plans and ‘built to rent’ schemes, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Sunday.

 in an interview with Phileleftheros, Ioannou confirmed that 1,142 of these units will be made available for affordable purchase or rental, while procedures for the affordable housing construction plan on state land are progressing towards 460 homes for young people and families at reduced rent.

Ioannou pointed to the impact of faster licensing procedures, remarking that “by the end of August, 2,533 single-family and duplex houses were licensed in 40 working days, and 1,242 multi-family buildings were licensed in 80 working days”.

He said this would bring 15,000 new residential units to market roughly a year and a half earlier than previously expected.

On existing schemes, Ioannou said the housing scheme for young people and families up to the age of 41 has supported 700 beneficiaries at a cost of €26 million, after the government expanded the programme from an initial target of 400 beneficiaries “so that all those whose applications were not rejected could receive support”.

He said strong demand had created the prospect of relaunching the scheme, subject to available resources.

Separately, he said 1,075 applications under housing plans for communities in Troodos had been approved between 2023 and 2026, representing €43 million in expenditure.

On the two schemes announced by President Nikos Christodoulides on Sunday, Ioannou explained the first allows homeowners to build an additional floor or extend existing property for children or grandchildren, regardless of whether the building coefficient has been exhausted.

New units can reach 150 square metres, or 180 on larger plots. He said this would let families “save significant resources from the family budget” rather than financing an entirely new home.

The second scheme involves state owned land sold at 25 per cent of market value. Ioannou said beneficiaries must be Cypriots under 45 meeting income and family criteria, covering families with children, couples without children and single parent families.

Around 570 plots will be distributed across all provinces, with further divisions to follow in interested communities.

Ioannou rejected the notion that the new schemes signalled previous programmes had underperformed.

“All the projects are recording very satisfactory performance, most of them even exceeding our expectations,” he insisted.

He said housing policy is constantly reviewed and adjusted, and that the new plans complement existing tools rather than replace them.

Asked whether the measures were enough to solve the housing problem, he said housing remained “a complex issue that requires many different interventions”.