Cost of buying property in Northern Cyprus

Northern Cyprus is widely known for being a serene place with amazing views and very attractive for tourists as well as locals. The weather is amazing, and it’s a place to unwind, relax and just cherish your life. That makes it extremely appealing to people from all over the world, so it can be a great idea to purchase a property here. Which brings the question, how much does it cost to acquire a property for sale in Northern Cyprus? Here are the facts.

How much does it cost to buy a house in Northern Cyprus?

Generally, it can be difficult to find resale property for sale in Northern Cyprus for anything under 150,000 GBP. Apartments for sale in North Cyprus can differ in price, if they are smaller, they can be under 80,000 GBP. The city also matters, since some of the larger cities have higher price points like Kyrenia. With that in mind, most of the new properties in Northern Cyprus have prices starting at 225,000 GBP or even more. On top of that, the year-by-year data suggests an increase in prices of at least 5%. This might end up continuing for quite some time, so there’s definitely a great idea to invest in a property here, as the value is always going up.

When you pay for the property, you want to ideally have a bank account in Northern Cyprus to make things smoother and easier. It’s important to keep in mind that every bank has its own transfer fees. And yes, if you pay with a credit card, most banks will have a different rate and their own commission. It’s a good idea to study all the valid options and see which one is better and how it suits your needs.

Stamp fees, VAT and property taxes in North Cyprus

There are specific policies when you buy a property in Northern Cyprus. If the property is resold and not new, then there’s no VAT. However, if you acquired it from a developer and the property is new, you will pay 5% VAT added on top to the purchase price. There’s also a stamp fee, 0.5% of the purchase price, and this is paid at the VAT office.

You might also have to pay a dead transfer fee, which is 6% of the total price. You might be eligible for exemption, and in that case it’s 3%. Another thing to note is that you will also need to pay property tax too, this is 20 pence for every square meter. In North Cyprus Property tax is always paid in March/April each year.

Do you have to pay legal fees?

Yes, you do, there are various legal fees that you will need to face, and these will differ based on the contract. Generally, the sum you expect to pay here is anywhere from 1200 GBP to 1500 GBP. If you are working directly with a estate agents, you may have access to specialised discounts and benefits like specialised loans and legal fee discounts. With that in mind, you still need to pay notary fees, which tend to be 20-30 GBP for every attestation.

Most of the time, you want to talk directly with the estate agents to see what benefits they can provide and if there’s any waive on specific fees. If you’re not working with a developer, you may still want to go to a bank to see if they can offer you a loan. Yet in this case you won’t have any specialized benefits, so that’s certainly something to keep in mind.

Getting a purchasing permit in North Cyprus

If you’re not a resident in Northern Cyprus, then you will have to buy a property purchase permit. If you are from Turkey this will take 2 months, for other countries it might take up to 8-10  months in total. You can expect legal fees here of around 1,000 to 1,500 GBP. Unfortunately there’s no way to expedite this process, so it can take multiple months until you see any solution.

Electricity and water connectivity fees in North Cyprus

Aside from all the purchase related costs, you also have to think about electricity and water installation costs. These are vital and you do need to take care of them as quickly as possible. The water meter costs vary, but they are 220 GBP on average. When it comes to the electric meter, you can expect to pay a 192 GBP deposit if you’re not a resident, prices for residents are 61 GBP.

If you have a family with 4 persons, you can expect to pay 52 GBP for electricity and 14 GBP for water every month. Costs will indeed vary based on the situation at hand, however it’s easy to see that the Northern Cyprus costs of living are not very high when compared to other regions.

Are there any other costs?

There are some situations when you will be required to pay extra. For example, there is a municipality tax of 2.60 – 3 GBP per month. Then there are also maintenance fees of roughly 80 GBP. In case you choose to rent the property for example, 10% of that agreed price is paid as tax. Of course, it’s important to talk with the municipality representative as they can offer guidance and update you with the latest payments you need to make. This will offer a much better insight and keep you up to date with everything.

It’s important to note that you may also have to deal with transformer fees. These appear when you are sharing the entire cost of bringing water and energy to the site. It’s normal in the case of new development properties, and these costs can be 1000 to 2000 GBP.

How much can you expect to pay on white goods and furniture?

If you buy a new property from a developer, chances are that they don’t have any furniture or white goods. In that case, you might have to pay 1000 GBP or more on white goods like washing machines, fridge, cooker, dishwasher and so on. Furniture costs can also be quite high too, up to 3000 GBP or sometimes even more than that.

Do you need a permission to live in Northern Cyprus?

In order to live in Northern Cyprus, you will be required to ask for permission. At first, you have the 90-day visa period, however if you want to stay here more than that, you will need to go to the Immigration Office. Here you can apply for a temporary visa. This can take up to 3 months to fulfill. You might also have to visit those governmental offices multiple times during this process. It might be needed to work with a legal consultant as well, which also adds a few extra costs as well.

Conclusion

Cost of buying property in Northern Cyprus. As you can see, moving to Northern Cyprus does involve some extra costs aside from the property costs themselves. That’s why it’s very important to ensure you know the additional costs that might arise, so you can be prepared for them. We recommend avoiding any rush when you are buying a property in Northern Cyprus, and instead focus on all the legal requirements. This will give you a very good idea of what you can expect, and the return on investment can be very good. All these guidelines and tips listed above will help you better understand the costs of moving to Northern Cyprus, so you can easily make the right decision when buying a property!