HI

I moved to Cyprus over a year ago and will try to answer some of your questions.

We came out 16 months previous to us moving out and bought a property off plan strickly for buy to let purposes, the developers were great at the time and promised us the earth. Once they got our money they are really not interested. We have learn't that Cyprus is an Island where most of locals are only interested in money they think the English have got a never ending supply and don't care how they get it off us. Mind you I have got some good Cypriot friends so there is some exception to this.

Firstly, long term rentals is really not the way to go with a property over here especially if your covering a mortgage, the reason for this is because the wages here are so low, us working class cannot afford to pay high prices to rent properties hence there is an awfull lot of propeties lying empty. I myself curently rent my home and struggled to find a owner that didn't have a mortgage just wanted the property lived in whilst his investment grew, hence my rent is reasonable.

If I'd know now back when I first deceide to Invest my money in Cyprus I would have done things a lot differently, firstly I would not have signed up on a guarenteed rental scheme, as what they pay me does not even cover my mortgage which I didn't know before I signed up. Secondly to be honest I wouldn't have bought a property here, the resale market is terrible due to the high level of new builds, most of my friends that live here rent and say that they would never buy a property in Cyprus and those of my friends that have retired and bought there house wish they hadn't and are now looking to sell. The build quality is so poor and the prices are far too high, the most used word by developers when advertising properties for sale is luxury, I suppose thay can't really say, well average concrete square properties for sale with no imagination used at all. There freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer due to no installation at all used.

My advice is to spend some quality time over here first get to know the island, coming on holiday for one or two weeks is not enough, talk to the locals the ex-pats approx 4 months would give you a better insite of the place and then make up your mind, don't just buy because there are so many people saying that Cyprus is a good investment as in my opinion it is not..

My husband and I own our own business over here and are tied into rental contracts etc with mjor financial losses to pull out, if this wasn't the case I think we would have moved on by now, maybe in the future we will. This island in beautifull I don't doubt that one bit, but there are more negatives than positives at the moment so for now my future is unknown.

Thanks for reading my moan I got alot off my chest. Hope this is of some use to you.

Regards

J J