Cyprus is being bought, piece by piece

Yesterday, I went to view a property for sale. There was also an Israeli lawyer at the viewing, apparently a resident of Limassol for the past eight years. This morning (18 hours after the viewing) I rang up the owners to express my interest to buy, only to be told that the Israeli lawyer had already bought the house having given a down payment.

I remember the times when to buy any real estate in Cyprus required ministerial approval. This meant that in practice, the government ministers would meet every so often to decide on applications to buy real estate by foreigners – my family, being Greek nationals were considered foreigners. Once a foreigner was approved, he could not apply for a second piece of property. Only one piece per foreigner. Frustrating as it was then for my family who have been Cyprus permanent residents since colonial times, I now wish that we could bring back the old times, for the security of our country.

Currently, it is apparent that Cyprus is being bought by Israel, piece by piece. I am not anti-Israeli, but I am worried that our system is such that if it wasn’t Israel it could well be Russia or China, or Turkey for that matter. Just about anyone! Now that I mention it, if the Turks were not accustomed to simply grab by force what they want, they could have silently and peacefully bought Cyprus many times over already.

Aris Sacorafos