Buying
Buying property in Cyprus without an estate agent
The island's leading portal takes listings only from agents and developers, so owner-sold property lives on Bazaraki, where a filter nobody mentions pulls it out in one click.
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Where private sellers actually list in Cyprus
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Property put up for sale by the people who own it, which on this island is the part the main portal will not show you at all. You deal with the owner and agree the price directly, and your lawyer then does the work that actually protects you.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. BuySellCyprus carries only listings from agents and developers.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - BuySellCyprus Agents only
Buyer filter There is nothing to filter: every listing comes from an agent or a developer
The market-leading portal by a wide margin, and closed to owners by policy. Its own agent-facing material says you need to be an estate agent or a property developer to advertise there. So the site most buyers treat as the Cyprus property market cannot show you a single owner-sold home.
- Bazaraki Owners can list
Buyer filter An owner setting that separates owners from realtors, and it sits in the web address
The island's biggest general classifieds site, free to post, carrying tens of thousands of properties from owners and agents together. The owner filter is the single most useful link on this page: it puts /owner/ into the address, so you can bookmark a filtered search and come back to it. Almost nobody frames Bazaraki as a property search, which is why this is so under-used.
- fsbo.cy Owners can list
Buyer filter Owner-marketed property only
A fixed-fee marketing service for owners rather than a classifieds board, doing photography, floor plans and promotion. It publishes no inventory count, so treat it as another place a seller may have advertised rather than a search destination.
- Facebook groups Owners can list
Buyer filter Search the town or village name with for sale by owner
Worth joining for Paphos, Limassol and the villages, where a good deal changes hands between people who already know each other. Nothing is verified and title status is never stated.
How many homes this really covers
Nobody publishes how much of the Cypriot market sells without an agent, and any figure you see quoted has no source behind it. The structural fact is more useful anyway: the dominant portal is closed to owners by policy, so owner-sold property is invisible on the main channel by design and concentrated on a general classifieds site. That makes it hard to find and, once you know where to look, easy.
The Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law 81(I)/2011
This is the most important protection a buyer in Cyprus has, and it runs on a deadline. Deposit a duly stamped copy of your contract of sale at the Department of Lands and Surveys within six months of signing, and your interest is registered: the seller cannot defeat it by selling the property again or mortgaging it, the contract binds later encumbrances, and if they refuse to transfer you can ask a court to order it. Miss the six months and you lose that protection entirely. It matters more here than almost anywhere, because title deeds are routinely slow to issue and the deposit is what secures you in the meantime.
In force since 2011. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Start on Bazaraki with the owner filter on
Set your area and price, switch the listing source to owner, and bookmark the resulting address. Then check BuySellCyprus separately for the agent market, so you are seeing both halves rather than one.
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Ask about the title deed at the first viewing
Whether a separate title deed exists for the property, and if not, where it is in the process. This is the defining question in Cyprus and it decides how the rest of the purchase has to be structured.
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Appoint an independent lawyer, not one the seller suggests
They will search the title for mortgages and memos and tell you what you are actually buying. Agree the fee up front; it typically runs around 1 percent plus VAT.
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Sign, stamp and deposit within six months
Stamp duty on the contract is paid first, then the stamped contract goes to the Lands Office. The six months runs from signing, and the protection is lost if you miss it. Put the date in writing with your lawyer.
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Work out whether transfer fees or VAT apply
A resale attracts progressive transfer fees, halved because no VAT is charged. A new build attracts VAT instead and no transfer fees, at 19 percent or a reduced 5 percent on a qualifying first residence, which has to be applied for.
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Complete the transfer at the Lands Office
Both parties attend, fees are paid and the deed is issued where one exists. Where it does not, your deposited contract remains what secures your position.
Check before any money moves
- Whether a separate title deed has been issued, and if not, what stage the process has reached
- A title search for mortgages, memos and charges, particularly a developer's loan secured over the whole project
- Whether the purchase attracts transfer fees or VAT, since you pay one or the other and not both
- Planning permission and the certificate of final approval for anything built or extended
- For a first residence, whether you qualify for the reduced VAT rate and the occupancy condition attached to it
- Unpaid immovable property charges, municipal fees, sewerage board levies and communal expenses
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in Cyprus , or the full guide to selling without an agent in Cyprus .
Common questions
Why can I not find owner-sold property on BuySellCyprus?
Because it accepts listings only from registered estate agents and property developers. That is policy rather than oversight, and it means the site most buyers use as the Cyprus market cannot show you an owner selling their own home.
Where do private owners advertise in Cyprus?
Mostly Bazaraki, which is free and has an owner setting that filters agents out and appears in the web address, so a filtered search can be saved. Then fsbo.cy and local Facebook groups.
What does the agent cost, and do I pay it?
The law sets 3 percent of the transaction as the default and practice runs 3 to 5 plus 19 percent VAT, owed by the seller. You do not pay it directly, though it sits inside the asking price. Only a Council-registered agent can lawfully claim it.
What is the six-month deadline I keep reading about?
Under the Specific Performance law you deposit your stamped contract of sale at the Lands Office within six months of signing. That registers your interest so the seller cannot sell or mortgage the property out from under you, and it lets you seek a court order for transfer. Miss it and the protection goes.
Do I need a lawyer if there is no agent?
More than ever. There is no notary in Cyprus, so the lawyer is the only professional checking the title and the only one who can deposit your contract in time. That work was never the agent's, so nothing about it changes when you buy direct.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- Estate Agents Law 71(I)/2010: the statutory 3 percent defaultBusiness in Cyprus · businessincyprus.gov.cy
- Real estate for sale, filtered to owner listingsBazaraki · bazaraki.com
- Department of Lands and Surveys: contract deposit and transfer feesRepublic of Cyprus · dls.moi.gov.cy
- Registered estate agents in CyprusCouncil for the Registration of Estate Agents · ktimatomesites.com