The Cyprus Borrowers Association (Syprodat) this week expressed “disappointment, discouragement, and a sense of failure” among trapped buyers, who are effectively paying off the debts of property developers from whom they purchased their homes.
Trapped buyers, despite fulfilling their financial obligations and paying the full purchase price for their properties, have not received full ownership due to delays in obtaining title deeds.
Without these deeds, buyers remain vulnerable, as developers’ unresolved loan obligations could result in the foreclosure of the properties in question.
According to the association, “many buyers have already fully repaid their loans but remain burdened by the developers’ financial obligations”.
In a statement, Syprodat highlighted that for reasons it “cannot fully ascertain but can suspect”, banks “have turned a blind eye” to the loan agreements they should have enforced with developers.
The association said that rather than ensuring developers used the funds received from property buyers to pay off loans taken for constructing buildings, banks have allowed developers to use the money for other purposes.
“This raises questions of responsibility for the banks involved in this behaviour,” the association said.
Syprodat further questioned whether the current situation, where approximately 10,000 buyers find themselves in dire straits, could have been avoided if the banks had not been complicit in the developers’ deceit.
Many of these buyers, the association noted, have already repaid their loans in full but remain trapped due to the developers’ unpaid debts.
The borrowers association called on the government, in collaboration with banks and credit acquisition companies, to urgently address the issue through appropriate legislative action.
It should be noted that in July of this year, Syprodat initiated discussions with various political parties to explore the possibility of proposing new legislation aimed at resolving the issue of trapped buyers.
At the time, Syprodat emphasised the seriousness of the issue and called for immediate action from both the government and political parties.
This followed statements by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, who noted ongoing efforts to find a legislative solution.
The government is “determined to make every effort to find a solution for trapped property buyers, who are now at risk of losing their properties,” Ioannou said.
These efforts have recently taken on new urgency after a court of appeal decision deemed certain provisions, which allowed trapped buyers to obtain ownership titles, unconstitutional.
At the time, the government said that it was working on a new bill, expected to be submitted to parliament in September.
