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Foreign Investors Buy Properties of Bank Debtors

Foreign Investors Buy  Properties of Bank Debtors

Wealthy Russians, Chinese and Arabs are among those who actively buy properties in Cyprus. They purchase commercial real estates and luxury villas, the owners of which are not able to pay the loans. Prices eventually start to go up.

The Russian investor purchased Pafian Park Hotel in Paphos for 11 million euros. The hotel belonged to a private owner and was built on a plot of the Cyprus Orthodox Church. The former owner of the hotel could not pay the mortgage to the Bank of Cyprus.

Hellenic Bank sold a plot of land near the Park Lane Hotel (formerly Le Meridien Hotel) to the Russian investor for 43 million Euro. The land belonged to the Cyprus Orthodox Church. The sale was made as an exchange of real estate for the debts of the church to the bank.

The plot of land situated next to the plot bought by the Russian investor, was purchased by the Middle East Investment Fund. The Bank of Cyprus (BoC) sold it for 28 million euros. In total, the special department of BoC sold major real estates owned by the debtors, for a total amount of € 160 million. There are other 1124 properties worth € 1.4 billion on the balance of the Bank of Cyprus.

According to the statistics department, prices of Cyprus residential properties increased by 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to the fourth quarter of 2015 and by 3.1% compared to the third quarter of 2016.