Property transfer fees & stamp duties, in cyprus

Property Transfer Fees & Stamp Duties, in Cyprus

Transfer of the ownership right from the developer to the buyer is accompanied by property registration tax paid by the buyer to the state, a so-called Transfer Fee. Transfer Fee is calculated based on the contract value of the real estate using the following scheme:

Transfer Fee calculation:

Real Estate PriceCommission Fee
under EUR 85.4303%
from EUR 85.431 to EUR 170.8605%
over EUR 170.8618%

Transfer fee is calculated in in the same way as in transactions on the secondary property market, i.e. every time the real estate title is transferred from one owner to another.

Presently, for all property sales for which VAT was paid, no transfer fees are applied. For all other cases, a 50% transfer fees’ reduction is applicable.

Tax is paid only once

For instance, you purchased a suite from a developer for 500 000 Euro. Transfer Fee, which you will pay as a lump sum to the State for registration of ownership right under your name after you receive the Council of Ministers permission, will be the sum of the following three factors:

85,430 х 3%+85,430 х 5%+329,140 х 8% = 33,165.6 Euro

Is it possible to reduce this amount?

Yes, for instance, when husband and wife share ownership or simply when there are several owners. In this case each one of them will be paying 250,000 Euro according to the contract and therefore the calculation will be as follows.

(85,430 х 3%+85,430 х 5%+79,140 х 8%) х 2= 26, 331.2 Euro

Stamp Duty

Stamp duty is an analog of the Russian state tax when purchasing real estate. Stamp duty is paid only once within thirty days from the date of co-signing of the property acquisition contract in Cyprus in order to register the transaction in the Inland Revenue Department. Stamp duty for property purchase in Cyprus constitutes 0.15% when the overall cost is not exceeding EUR 170 860 and 0,2% when the amount exceeds EUR 170 860.
If the real estate you purchased is worth EUR 500,000, the stamp duty will be:

€ 170 860 x 0,15% + € 329 140 x 0,2% = € 915

To summarize the above, while buying property in Cyprus you pay two taxes – Transfer Fee (tax on transfer of ownership right) and Stamp Duty. Therefore, referring to our earlier example, when two individuals share the ownership right and they acquire an apartment worth € 500.000 they will pay a lump sum of around € 27.000. There are no other payments to be made when buying property in Cyprus.

Lump-sum payments related to the transfer or sale of immobile property.