Return on Investment

Start with the all in cost: the price plus stamp duty at 0.5 per cent, VAT at 5 per cent if the property is a new build, the 9 per cent transfer fee when the deed transfers, and legal fees. Then model the rent on evidence: actual letting statements from comparable units, net of management, voids and running costs, never a developer projection.

Treat appreciation as the upside case rather than the plan. Recent years have been kind to well chosen coastal property here, but past movement is not a promise. We would rather you buy something that works on income alone and let any growth arrive as a bonus.

Off plan pricing is the market’s main structural discount: early phases of credible developments sell below the same unit at completion, with staged payments improving your cash timing further. That is why investors keep asking about it, and the appeal is real.

The discount is compensation for construction risk, and it must be underwritten, not assumed. Delays are common; outright failures are rare but not unknown. Our filter is blunt: developers with completed phases you can walk through, land title verified in our own checks, contracts registered, and payments tied to construction milestones. We would rather you miss an uplift than chase one across a weak developer.

Against the alternatives, North Cyprus sits in an unusual quadrant: entry prices are low relative to both rents and replacement cost, so the market can offer income and growth potential at the same time. Mature Mediterranean markets rarely offer both in the same measure, which is precisely why they are easier to finance and easier to exit.

The risks deserve equal billing: political status is unresolved, liquidity is thin, the market is young, and currency movements affect running costs. Diversified investors size the position accordingly, because this is a good place for part of a portfolio and a poor place for all of it. We say that to every client, including the ones it talks out of buying.