24 | LETTERS


YOUR SHOUT What do you think?


Here at OPP, we really want to know what your thoughts are on the issues that affect our industry. So, please tell us what you think about the latest news and what you’d like to see discussed by joining our LinkedIn group, tweeting us @oppnews, e-mailing geoff. hadwick@richmondgreengroup.com, or writing us a good old-fashioned letter...


Cyprus needs to tackle its culture of “what can we get away with?”


Dear Editor It seems to me that in Cypriot business life “What can we get away with?” has


become a popular pastime … if not an art form. Many people in the Cyprus property market have been ‘trying to get away


with’ various nefarious activities for a long time. The huge backlog of 120,000 residential properties in Cyprus that have yet


to be issued with separate Title Deeds has become both a cause célèbre of frustrated existing buyers who demand their deeds and the bane of Cypriot developers, agents, banks and lawyers who are unable to coax new buyers while the problem remains unresolved. Typically, even with unencumbered properties, buyers are having to wait


7 to15 years for their deeds. And now Land Registry officials are accused of falsifying values by as much as 60% to rake in extra Transfer Tax. In one instance, a property bought for €150,000 some years ago was apparently revalued at €1m!! The Cyprus Parliament has recently passed a series of bills which the


government claims will transform the situation. However, the bills have been dismissed widely as just another planning amnesty for wayward developers. Vested interests lined up to ensure that the bills retained most of the


existing long-winded, complex, cumbersome and frankly idiotic procedures required to obtain Title Deeds. They, including the government, are still ‘trying to get away with’ totally reprehensible and unacceptable practices which have been outlawed by the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC.


The net effect of Cyprus persistently ‘trying to get away with it’ has been


short-term gain and long-term loss with the ongoing decimation of its property sector. And, speaking of deception, some pundits have recently claimed that the


Russians are now replacing the British as the main property-buying source in Cyprus. Figures used to back up this silly claim show that 300,000 Russian tourists are expected here in 2011. So … let’s assume that this fi gure is reasonable. In 2009 more than 1 million


of the 2.2 million foreign tourists here were British. That fi gure is believed to have since dropped to somewhere around 900,000. So … for the Russians to even match the present depressed British tourist


market they would have to treble their projected number this year! Does anyone seriously believe that the Russians will ever match, let alone replace, the British market? The Cypriot columnist, Hermes Solomon, once referred to the ‘artful ways’ of


Cypriots as being the product of centuries of cultural immersion in deception and thievery. I disagree because it suggests that those Cypriots who behave badly are merely innocent victims of an immutable national culture which, conveniently, can be blamed for it all. I say that every person has moral choices and a responsibility to resist “let’s see


what we can get away with” temptations. It is in their long-term self-interest to do so. Dr Alan Waring Dr Alan Waring & Associates PO Box 41029 6309 Larnaca Republic of Cyprus


Berlin yields scream invest now


Dear Editor The Berlin property market saw a big rise in volume in 2010 over 2009 and many


overseas buyers are clearly returning in numbers. This is hardly a surprise given that it is still possible to fi nd buildings with net yields of over 8% and banks that will lend up to 80% of the purchase price fi xed for 10 years. Many UK buy-to-let investors in the UK must be worried that interest rates


will rise sooner or later, and that is not something people who have purchased in Berlin need to worry about … in fact rents are rising so fast in central Berlin it would cover any interest rate rise in most cases if it were needed but with fi xed mortgage costs for 10 years. All of this makes Berlin a brilliant place to invest, as OPP’s recent news stories


on Germany indicate. John Aitken. www.BerlinMortgages.com.


www.opp.org.uk | JUNE 2011


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