By Pavlos Loizou, CEO Ask Wire
Walk through the centre of Nicosia, Limassol, or Larnaca and the pattern becomes impossible to ignore. Vacant plots sitting idle for decades. Buildings – put up in the sixties and seventies on the back of independence-era optimism – now standing peeling, neglected, quietly deteriorating. And yet, right next to them, rents are rising. In Nicosia, average asking rents for apartments have increased by over 40% in the past four years. The two facts are not a contradiction. They are, in fact, the same story.
The owner’s perspective
The story is about incentives — or rather, the absence of them.
Start with the landlord. In a supply-constrained market, a property will find a tenant almost regardless of its condition. If the house will rent…