Panayiotis Rougalas
We were glad to hear that the government will keep several housing schemes running in 2026. That’s good news, at least on paper.
These include the Urban Planning Incentive Schemes and the “Build to Rent” program, which allow developers extra building rights to boost the housing supply, especially cheaper homes. There are also the schemes aimed at breathing life back into mountain, rural, and border communities. Those will be updated and relaunched next year. And let’s not forget the grant program for student housing within Nicosia’s old city.
But there’s one scheme we didn’t hear about, the housing grant aimed at young people and young couples up to age 41. No confirmation that it continues in 2026, no announcement that it’s ending. Just silence. As things stand, the program expires in late November 2025. So far, 261 applications have been approved, another 262 are still being reviewed, and the platform has received 703 valid submissions in total. According to the Interior Ministry, the approved cases amount to €9.6 million in support.
The government clearly knows the housing crisis is real and is trying to do something about it. But for some reason, those efforts don’t include targeted help for people under 41. It’s almost as if the government assumes young adults are doing just fine, financially comfortable even, and don’t need help with today’s sky-high property prices. Especially in Limassol, where the unspoken rule seems to be: to buy a home, either your parents must gift you a plot of land, or you must work in a tech company earning over €5,000 a month.
And honestly, the scheme had issues from the very start. The original income limit, €25,000 per person, was unrealistic. As if someone earning that amount could save for a down payment and keep up with mortgage installments. Thankfully, it was raised to €30,000, which is at least closer to what life actually costs in Cyprus. Still, if you look closely, the scheme felt like it was designed for families who already had property to pass down to their kids, with the government simply offering a little “boost” for renovations. It never really addressed the reality facing most young adults trying to buy their first home.
To be fair, not everything is doom and gloom. Young people up to 41 can still benefit from the scheme for mountain areas, and the grants there are actually bigger than the ones offered under the youth housing plan. The message, though, seems clear: “If you want an affordable home, and if you want our help, go live in the mountains.” Cities, meanwhile, are slowly becoming places only wealthier under-41s, or those whose parents gift them land, can afford.
All that said, maybe the Interior Ministry simply needs time to design a new, more realistic scheme that genuinely helps young people and couples under 41. A scheme that actually fits today’s housing market, not one that looks good on paper but doesn’t do much in practice.
