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Indian summer 'boosts' Cypriot property

 

A prolonged hot summer period in the UK has heated up property sales in Cyprus as Brits returned from their summer holidays only to head back to the Mediterranean island to purchase a holiday home.

By all accounts this summer was a scorcher; the Met Office recalled that the five months from May to September this year were the warmest since records began in 1659 and, according to Morpheus Investments, this has had a knock-on effect on the Cyprus property market.

It has been reported that sales hit the highest volume last month in over ten years, many of these sales down to the hot weather experienced in the UK. As Brits savoured the sunshine back at home, it appears that they were storing up a love of the beautiful climate more accustomed to the Mediterranean.

"[Buyers] are opting for foreign properties as an escape route from the typically unpredictable British weather."

Brits have long since held a soft spot for the former outpost of the British Empire, with 300 days sunshine a year, a largely preserved inland environment and properties starting from around CYP 50,000, or £58,000.

A recent study found that the locations that Brits were most likely to invest in property were also the most visited holiday destinations. However, the notable exception was Greece, which does not have a strong holiday home market. This is partly due to the absence of legal and financial infrastructure that UK residents feel comfortable dealing with and partly due to the draw of Cyprus, which offers these facilities in abundance.

Southern Cyprus is a low tax economy, has similar land registry laws to those at home and owing to our colonial heritage, English is widely spoken on the island. Such factors are inducing more Brits to invest in their dream properties, even if the weather is hotting up at home.