According to the latest reports Cyprus has been ranked the 5th best relocation destination in the world. Ranked by key business and leisure indicators, Cyprus was the only European country alongside Switzerland, and the only EU Member State, to make it into the top five– ahead of London, Madrid and Monaco.
Changes to Cyprus’ citizenship-by-investment scheme, which has granted 1,864 citizenship and generated €6.6 billion of foreign investment have started being applied since 15th Of May 2019.
The recent amendments to the Naturalization of Investors in Cyprus by Exception Scheme still allows to applicants and their family to hold a Cyprus passport and enjoy all the benefits of a Cypriot and EU National within just 180 days for the date of application by a qualified applicant.
The new criteria are for an investment €2 million if investing in residential or of €2.5 million if investing in commercial real estate, including the purchase of a residency of at least €500000 and two mandatory donations of € 75,000 each. One to the Research and Innovation Foundation and another €75.000 to the Cyprus Land Development Corporation for the financing of housing schemes for affordable housing, but also for the materialization of other housing schemes/measures.
Also, the candidate must have a Cyprus residence permit for at least six months before being naturalized as a Cypriot citizen and must maintain the required investments for a period of at least 5 years from the date of naturalization, instead of the previous program requirement of 3 years. Applicants are not required to live in Cyprus for any period of time in order to qualify.
According to the latest KPMG Real Estates Market Report: “The Real Estate activity continued its upward trend in 2018, with Contracts of Sale exhibiting an increase of 21%. Limassol had the biggest share (37%) of the market, while Famagusta the biggest increase ( 37%) in sales. Non-nationals in 2018 bought 103% more properties compared with Q1-Q3 2017, reaching a 48% share of the overall market.”
The main investments in Limassol were made into luxury waterfront apartments that combines all the advantages of an investment from perfect seafront location to perfect high-quality serviced properties.
Nicolaou Estates offers a very large offer of investment properties that covers all aspects of a perfect real estate major deal!
Our readers may read the full text of the new law here:
Cyprus Citizenship Law as per 15 of May 2019
