The number of non-Cypriots who acquired real property in Cyprus, incentivised by government schemes offering investors a Cypriot passport or a visa depending on the value of the investment, rose in the first eight months of the year an annual 4.2% to 618, the department said.

According to reports in Britain’s The Guardian on Sunday, Cyprus extended more than 400 passports to investors as part of the government’s citizenship-by-investment scheme which allows investors to get a Cypriot passport by investing €2m in Cyprus or previously €2.5m.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, since the inception of the scheme in the months following the 2013 banking and fiscal crisis, the scheme triggered almost €5bn in investment in the economy, including €0.5bn in government bonds which are no longer an eligible option in the latest version of the scheme updated a year ago, €0.5m in deposits, also no longer eligible, and €0.7bn in company acquisitions, while the bulk of the remaining amount went into real estate. The number of persons who benefited from this scheme and a similar scheme introduced by the government under former President Demetris Christofias exceeds 1,200.

The report said that beneficiaries of the scheme, who can liquidate their investment at a later stage, excluding a residence worth at least €500,000, include Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs implicated with corruption.

The overall number of properties that changed owners in August rose 27% to 572 and in January to August 20% to 4,921.

Source: Cyprus Mail