The housing market in Larnaca has been of significant interest for the past few years. Recently the Real Estate Market Report has been released, therefore now is the perfect opportunity to look at and reflect on how Larnaca’s housing market is looking.
Construction Statistics
In this section we will discuss the construction statistics for 2019 to the comparison of the beginning of 2020 (H1).
In the last five years the construction sector regarding real estate has seen significant growth rates within Cyprus and especially Larnaca. It has been revealed that building permits in Larnaca by volume are at 16% with the value of these permits at 12%. Residential building permits has again, taken the highest percentage across the island at 72% and the average construction cost per permit in Larnaca was 399 (€’000).
Due to the pandemic, building permits across Cyprus saw a significant slowdown and this has resulted in a decrease in both volume and value of permits. Furthermore, residential buildings accounted for 72% of building permits in the month before lockdown.
Sales in The Housing Market in Larnaca and Cyprus
Contract of sales continued to see growth within Cyprus during 2019 with a +12% y-o-y growth. Contract of sales within the housing market in Larnaca was at 15% during last year with the largest y-o-y growth in the number of transactions being Nicosia (Larnaca followed just behind).
As expected, sales declined throughout the island due to the ongoing pandemic however, Larnaca was impacted less than other districts with a decline of just -27% in comparison to some cities at -53%. The KPMG Cyprus Real Estate Market Report does state that the numbers show signs of recovery from June onwards which is a welcomed relief.
Find out more regarding selling property in Larnaca here.
Rental Prices
Residential prices saw significant increase across the whole of Cyprus during 2019. With houses in Larnaca seeing a 23% increase during 2019. Rent for commercial property such as office space saw a significant increase. Also, in comparison to employee earnings, rental price has risen much faster over the past four years.
Conclusion
Of course, with the recent and ongoing pandemic, the housing market in Larnaca has been affected. However, with the data presented above we can conclude that is quite possibly a buyer’s market right now.