do you actually own the land that your Villas is built on?

Be very careful on this one. Sometimes they only offer the deeds on the property, not the land. This could be for a number of reasons; if you know the history of the island, you will know what I mean...

Ady

Hi Kaz. This website - and an investment of £6.50 - may be worth checking out if you're thinking of buying in North Cyprus.

Hi,
Amanda Lamb. Place in the sun was allegedly to have said,
She would not touch North Cyprus with a barge pole.

Due to the problems with the legality of who actually owns the land the property is built on.

It was stressful enough buying in the South without taking on all kinds of problems buying in the North.
No thank you not worth the loss of sleep wondering if its legally yours.
Elizabeth

Loads of Brits "own" property in the North. You need to deal with a
reputable agent and a good Solicitor. "Best" title to own is either foreign ownership pre 1974 or Turkish cypriot pre 74. Most property is sold
with local KTC title. Property ownership is one of the issues that is
obviously going to need to be settled during any future negotiations!

There was a recent case where a UK couple who had property near Kyrenia have been ordered by a court in Nicosia to knock down the villa they built and return the land to the Greek- Cypriots who owned it before 1974. They have also been ordered to pay compensation.
In February this year the govt of the Republic of cyprus issued a statement warning investors against buying property in the occupied north.
Ghostly Thursday has already said what to look for in title deeds. But do a proper title deed search in the Republic of Cyprus.

It's too much of a risk. Your always going have in the back of your mind that a Greek is going to come knocking on your door one day saying "oi I want my house back" basically. By selling so much property to foreigners they are pushing the problem onto someone else. It is a can of worms to say the least.

Suppose the same could apply in the South but get the impression that most of the "holiday" type property there has been built post 74

It isn't even so much the houses as the land they stand on. So the house can be new, it would make no difference.

I personally feel some of these problems are over stated. If you are foolish enough to purchase land that clearly is not someone's to sell then you are asking for trouble. My understanding is that the case in Nicosia was one such case. However if land was owned by a foreigner or a turkish cypriot prior to 1974 then no-one can have an issue with it. I am
not fully conversant with the points system land which makes up the majority of that which is for sale (KKTC title). If the land was previously Greek owned just don't get involved.
As I said previously if you use a reputable lawyer and do your homework
you can own a property in a beautiful island. If the problems put you off so be it. The Sunday papers also rave about Croatia as a place to buy. The land ownership problems there are perhaps even more off-putting?!

From http://www.cyprusembassy.fi/v05/index.php?pgroup=problems&subpage=10000006

*Edit to remove contents of above link. Due to copyright laws we cannot accept copies of posts from other websites. Links are fine -Glynis*

*Edit copyright material deleted. Please post links not copies from websites -Glynis*

As Lalalula says. Don't buy Greek Cypriot property! Pre 74 Turkish Cypriot or pre 1974 foreign is fine. Someone else may have more understanding of the points exchange system between North & South.

Someone else may have more understanding of the points exchange system between North & South

There isn't one - despite what you may have been told.

It is exactly these "exchange lands" that are disputed, as an exchange needs agreement from both parties, which it has not got.

Ady

Edit to add second paragraph; read wrong without clarification.

There are 4 types of Title Deeds (Kocan)

Clean Freehold Tıtle

British or foreign owned prior to 1974 with Title deeds available.

Clean Freehold Title

Turkish Cypriot owned prior to 1974, these deeds are 100% safe but very hard to find and expensive to buy. Before property can be registered in your name an application has to be made to the Council of Ministers for approval. Foreigners are only allowed to purchase 1 Dönüm per couple same surname. For different surnames then 1 Dönüm each.

TRNC Kesin Tasarruf

Absolute possession title deed, This is property that was Greek Cypriot owned prior to 1974. When the Turkish refugees came to the North leaving their own homes in the South the TRNC government set up a points system. Each person was awarded points to the value of the property left in the South. With their point they could take possession of a property previously owned by a Greek Cypriot. The Turkish owner would sign over their property in the South to the TRNC government. These deeds are being held pending a negotiated settlement of the 2 sides.

What a lot of people don't realise is that this goes on on both sides.
Larnaca airport is built on land belonging to a Turkish Cypriot,who is in the process of suing the RoC government to get his land back plus 100 million in compensation.The RoC Interior Minister has already told him he can go whistle and he's got more chance of knitting fog.

The general consensus is that the greek cypriots want ALL their land back in the north and are totally unwilling to return land they have
'stolen,used' from turkish cypriots in the south.
Read into that what you like but remember that the law as it stands in the TRNC allows foreigners to buy land,property there.
Thousands of Brits have with no problems.

The 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' is recognised by no country other than Turkey - the rest of the world regards it as territory illegally occupied by Turkey and it is unlikely that any law passed post-1974 by the authorities there would be recognised in a court of law outside the occupied area. I accept that the majority of UK people who have bought property in the North have not had any problems to date and probably won't as long as the status quo exists but the legal status of the TRNC is a running sore that will have to be resolved at some point in the future, not only because Cyprus is a member of the EU but because Turkey is anxious to join too and there is no way they will be allowed to do so while they are regarded by the rest of the EU membership as illegally occupying, following a military invasion, sovereign territory of another member.

Continued support of the TRNC is costing Turkey dear, both politically and economically, and the time will come when they will decide the price is too high. The longterm benefits to them of joining the EU greatly outweigh any benefits they derive from supporting the TRNC and they will ditch the latter to gain the former. So unless you can be sure that you have a cast iron case for knowing that you are buying property directly from someone who owned the land pre-1974 you can expect problems the moment the status quo changes and change it will because the present situation cannot last indefinitely as most living in the North recognised when they voted 'Yes' to the compromise solution that those living in the South rejected.

Turkey is desperate to join the EU and in the end they will agree to whatever conditions are imposed on them by the EU in order to make that happen. The government of Cyprus knows this full well too and it gives them the whiphand in negotiating any solution - don't forget that under the existing treaties they can veto any application to join from Turkey and will do so unless completely happy with any compromise solution offered. In the end the North will come off worst in these negotiations and this is why so many commentators are advising British people not to buy property in the occupied territories because many could find that their 'deeds' aren't worth the paper they are written on.

SM

SM

You would be advised to know that the south has also taken land from turkish cypriots and has no intention of ever giving it back,Larnaca airport for one.
Did you know this was built on land belonging to a turkish cypriot?
Do you not think this will also cause a stumbling block when it comes to negotiations for a solution?

You are correct in saying the RoC can veto turkeys membership but do you honestly think they will dare when the other 24 member states vote yes.

Also in light of the recent oil field finds off the coast of Cyprus,Turkey,Egypt etc,Egypt and Cyprus have recently signed an oil exploration programme and it could earn Cyprus tens of millions of pounds in revenue each year,however they need Turkey's permission to do so

What do you think is going to happen now the rest of the world is calling for the end of the turkish cypriots isolation

Hi Gooligan,

I fully agree with you that the entire Cyprus situation is very messy and anybody who buys anywhere in Cyprus without being absolutely sure that the vendor has full legal title to the land could come a cropper but the original post was about buying in northern Cyprus and hence why my post was commenting on that specific issue.

Yes, the rest of the world is calling for an end to the current situation but I don' think that this means that they are all calling for recognition of the TRNC. Many of them are still maintaining that any solution has to be based on the Turkish army withdrawing from the north. If they aren't there has been nothing to stop other Governments simply recognising the TRNC but no one other than Turkey has done so.

Not only do I think that the Cypriot government and people would veto any application from Turkey to join the EU - after all despite considerable international and EU support for the most recent compromise solution they still overwhelmingly rejected it but for the foreseeable future they won't be the only ones vetoing an application from Turkey unless there are signs of movement from turkey on this issue. The French and German Governments have both expressed concern about whether Turkey is a 'European' country both in terms of geography and culture as well as on the basis of their human rights record. For the moment at least the Cyprus Government can count on some pretty powerful allies within the EU.

As for the petroleum exploration programme I would have expected this to cut both ways and just as the Cypriots will need the agreement of the Turkish Government, so surely it will they need the agreement of the Cypriots in their turn? It should provide a powerful incentive for both sides to agree a compromise solution but the Cypriots haven't shown much interest in agreeing a compromise about anything so far.

My own personal opinion is that neither Government has shown much interest until recently in reaching a compromise solution that the other will agree to and that the Cypriot government has been the most obdurate of the 2 and I see little indication that they will become more co-operative in the near future, especially given that they are receiving support from courts elsewhere over the land ownership issue. The Turkish Government has also been pretty obdurate too until the issue of EU membership started to assume greater importance for them. Frankly, I'm with Shakespeare on this one - 'a plague on both their houses'. In the end I think we will just have to accept that we hold different opinions on the likelihood of a solution being agreed in the near future and the advisability of buying property in the north that are based on our different interpretations of the current political situation. And in the meantime I'm not holding my breath and hoping for a rapid solution that includes automatic legal recognition of any deeds of land ownership issued post 1974 in the North and hence still think that anybody contemplating buying property in the north needs to be especially mindful of the warnings about the pitfalls that could await them when any settlement is finally reached between the 2 Governments.

SM