Rental values increased by 1% quarter-on-quarter for apartments and 1.7% for houses, while falling by 0.6% for retail properties, 1.3% for warehouses, and 1.4% for offices.

The rental values of holiday apartments and houses also increased from the previous quarter by 1.5% and 2% respectively.

“The strong labour market, the availability of credit for mortgages, and pend-up demand over the past couple of years continues to drive the residential market as investors are looking at ways to generate income,” WiRE CEO Pavlos Loizou said.

“In contrast, the changing landscape around office use and the structure of Cyprus’ banks (less staff, fewer branches), as well as the move to online purchases and the appeal of newly opened shopping malls/ destinations in Nicosia and Larnaca, is having a significant impact on the office and retail market,” Loizou added.

The fluctuation of rental values on an annual basis showed similar tendencies, with rental values rising for apartments (2%), houses (0.4%) and holiday apartments (0.9%), while falling for retail space (5.5%), warehouses (3.2%), offices (6.7%) and holiday homes (1.4%).

The most noteworthy changes took place in Larnaca, where rental values for holiday apartments rose by 6.3% quarter-on-quarter at the end of 2021.

“We are still away from seeing a return to stability, let alone observe an uptake in the commercial market or a sense of direction in purchase and prices for holiday homes,” Loizou explained.

In terms of property sales in the fourth quarter, values increased by 1.4% for apartments and 0.5% for houses, both quarter-on-quarter.

Conversely, values dropped by 0.5% for retail space, 2% for warehouses, and 0.3% for offices.

Meanwhile, holiday apartment values rose by 1% quarter-on-quarter, while holiday house values fell by 0.1%.

In annual terms, apartment values rose by 2.2% year-on-year, while holiday apartments increased by 0.7%.

Moreover, houses (0.5%), retail properties (3.4%), warehouses (4.5%), offices (2.1%) and holiday houses (3.7%) all decreased in average value during 2021.

Again, Larnaca offered the sharpest increase, with apartment values exhibiting a 2.5% quarterly increase at the end of the previous year.

Source: Cyprus Mail