Cyprus property in 2025: what a record year means if you're buying for residency

A record year, and a deep market

Cyprus recorded roughly €6.5 billion in property transactions during 2025 — an 8% rise on 2024 and the highest figure on record, across some 25,600 transactions, according to PwC's analysis of Land Registry data. For a residency buyer, the headline matters less than what sits underneath it: this is a liquid, functioning market with genuine domestic demand, not a thin market propped up by residency programmes. Apartments drove the growth, contributing 42% of total value — and it is apartments at and above the €300,000 threshold that most of my clients actually buy.

Foreign demand accelerated — before Schengen

The figure I would weigh most carefully: 7,255 properties were acquired by foreign buyers in 2025, up 16% — roughly 28% of everything sold on the island, with about two-thirds of those buyers coming from outside the EU. Every district rose. This is what demand looks like before Cyprus completes Schengen accession. I have written before that the pre-accession period is the quieter end of the demand curve; the 2025 data suggests "quieter" is already relative.

Limassol: expensive for a reason

Limassol absorbed 41% of all transaction value on 28% of transaction volume. The average apartment here changed hands at around €403,000, roughly double the level of Nicosia or Larnaca. And in the high-end segment — single residential properties at €1.5 million and above — Limassol represented 61% of the entire country's activity.

Through Cyprino, my real-estate practice, I watch this market transact daily — and when clients ask why I steer serious budgets toward Limassol despite the premium, this is the answer in numeric form: it is where liquidity, international demand, and resale depth concentrate. The interesting shift worth watching: Paphos's share of the high-end segment jumped from 18% to 28% in a single year — luxury money is starting to look west.

Steady at the top, solid underneath

Some 203 transactions closed at €1.5 million or above in 2025 — almost identical to 2024's 202 — for a combined €550 million. A flat year at record-market highs is, honestly, reassuring: it suggests the top end is functioning on genuine end-user demand rather than speculative churn. Residential prices island-wide rose about 5% year on year per the Central Bank's index, with the Bank itself expecting gradual moderation as supply arrives. That is the texture of a healthy market — not the vertical price charts that end badly.

Around the property data sits a macro story that five rating agencies spent 2024–2026 endorsing: Moody's at A3, Fitch and S&P at A− with positive outlooks, DBRS and Scope both upgrading to A. GDP grew 3.8% in 2025 — among the fastest in the EU — while inflation fell to 0.8%. Building permits rose 28% in value, meaning supply is responding. None of this guarantees anything about any single property; all of it describes the backdrop your banker will care about.