Government unveils ambitious housing strategy, Minister Ioannou reveals

The government has set the people and their servicing without undue inconvenience at the core of its policies, Minister of the Interior Constantinos Ioannou said on Tuesday, adding the Ministry is working on issuing public documents to the Civil Registry Department.

Ioannou presented the work of his Ministry during the first year of the administration under President Nikos Christodoulides.

On Housing policy, Ioannou said for the first time the government has drafted a comprehensive housing policy providing “realistic solutions through a set of measures and plans.”

“Our approach is focusing on short-term and long-term measures, which on the one hand will increase the output of housing stock and additionally contribute to the provision of housing units in the market with an affordable price,” he said.

Ioannu said that since the introduction of the new housing policy, two actions have been implemented since December, that is, the “Build to Rent” scheme and the revised town planning incentives.

Additionally, he said the Ministry at the suggestion of ETEK, has introduced the subsidy scheme “Renovate- Rent” which provides financial incentives, encouraging the renovation of the current inactive housing stock and its provision to the market with affordable rent.

About town planning, the Minister said that in addition to the hiring of more employees to support the licensing department ahead of the reform of the Local Administration, the Ministry announced a set of 22 measures last October, which amend the current processes while introducing a more flexible licensing framework for development projects.

Based on a specific timeframe, Ioannou added, 11 of the 22 measures have been implemented, while an additional 10 have progressed to a significant extent and are expected to be implemented in the remaining two months until the reform is put in force.

Replying to a question on the town planning amnesty, examined by the Ministry, Ioannou said there has been a concern whether this measure might be exploited.

“Our aim is for the amnesty to happen but under the correct criteria, he said.

Stating that the task at hand is not easy, the Minister noted that “the aim is to free buyers trapped in violations carried out either by themselves or by land development professionals.”

Furthermore, Ioannou said that an additional reform taking place under the principle of transparency and equality concerns the management of Turkish Cypriot properties.

He acknowledged that “the decades-long wrong management of Turkish Cypriot properties has opened the door to phenomena of exploitation and abuse, a fact which caused feelings of injustice and inequality among the refugees.”

Replying to a question on the provision included in the legal reform package concerning the inheritance of Turkish Cypriot houses, Ioannou said this provision is appropriate because there is a form of heredity to all those who have received title deeds or obtained the right of usage in refugee apartment blocks, while others who have obtained a Turkish Cypriot house 30 of 40 years before cannot pass it over to its children.

“This is an unequal treatment among refugees,” he said.

On the imminent reform of the Local Administration, the Minister noted that is acceptable by all that the promoted reform is better than the current operation model without being perfect or equally beneficial for all citizens of the new Local Authorities.

“The citizens should expect that during the first stage of the reform, there will be difficulties and an adaptation period will be required, as various services with different approaches and operating modes will merge,” he said.

Concerning the Ministry’s plans for 2024, Ioannou said the aim is to offer more services to the citizens such as electronic issuance of documents of the Civil Registry Department.

He said the Ministry is committed to “implementing the government’s strategy to transform the state into a living organization with a human-centered approach, fair and transparent procedures where every citizen equally will enjoy the same service and will recover their confidence to the institutions of the state.”