Cyprus Latest News Jan08

I have to say, we were expecting things to be a little chaotic but the transition was surprisingly smooth.

Whilst some smaller shops took the opportunity to sneak a few cents onto key items, the vast majority of shops and businesses actually rounded DOWN their euro prices. Instead of expected confusion at the tills, we found the tills could happily accept Cyprus pounds and work out the change in euros.

Just as well as around 70% of people hadn't changed their pounds into the new Cyprus money by the end of December.

Of course, it wasn't simple everywhere. The petrol stations had big price signs still in Cyprus pounds whereas the pumps had been changed to read euros. The 24 hour pump machines had not been converted so motorists were unable to buy petrol after 5.30pm.

But the bonus for motorists was that all parking meters had to be covered up as they wouldn't take euros. That means free parking for us all. And who knows, in the Cypriot way of "siga siga", we may still have free parking in a few months time!

For a reminder of what the new Cyprus money looks like click here.

The HOTTEST Cyprus latest news Jan08.

Easyjet have announced that they WILL be continuing the GB airways routes to Cyprus from both Gatwick AND Manchester. But don't celebrate too soon. Whilst flights start from £49.99, there are not many seats available at this price.

We checked the Easyjet site and found one way (all inclusive) prices ranged from £49.99 to £214.99 depending on the timings chosen.

There have already been press reports about disappointment over Easyjet's fare pricing to Cyprus but the pricing policy is not unexpected. After all, Cyprus is over 4 hours away from the UK.

Our tip is to get your flight booked as soon as you know your trip dates. First come = cheapest fares.

From January 1st 2008, VAT is now applied to all land purchases. If you were thinking of buying a property or some land in Cyprus, prices will now be even higher. (The average house price increased last year by 1/5th to €185,116 or CYP £108,300).

We've heard that many developers, both big and small, have been buying up large parcels of land in order to beat the VAT increase. This is causing further delays in the building departments across the island due to the amount of paperwork required to process all the land purchases.

Whilst property prices are set to rise even higher, some developers may have overstretched themselves as we see a lot of empty properties around and some property agents locally have recently gone out of business.

The next few months will certainly be an interesting time for the property market.

Over the past few months there have been numerous stories in the press about the lack of support people have received from their lawyer when trying to settle disputes/problems regarding their property purchase. In many cases, this is due to the relationship that exists between the lawyer and the property developer ie. the lawyer is also working for the developer!

A recent report said that some lawyers have now been effectively blacklisted in an attempt to reinstate confidence in peoples' minds.

Anyone deciding to purchase property or land in Cyprus will require a Cyprus lawyer and this person is often recommended by the developer or the developer's agent. Most people go with the recommendation, particularly if they are short of time (eg. they are on a 3 day property buying trip).

You do not need to necessarily worry about this, just make sure you check out the credentials of any lawyer recommended to you and obtain additional references from a third party. Check out our Cypus lawyer page for additional advice - we've been there and done it already and can recommend an excellent trustworthy lawyer if you need one.

That's all from our Cyprus Latest News Jan08.

See you next month

Helen

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