Newsroom
A 28-year-old woman from Larnaca has put into words what many in Cyprus quietly feel: the dream of starting a family is slipping further out of reach, tangled in high rents, low wages, and the lingering wounds of 1974.
Her post on social media, written under a comment thread on Paphos mayor Phaedon Phaedonos’ housing post, has struck a nerve across the island. With simple, plain words, the young electrical engineer spelled out how the lack of affordable housing and limited state support weigh on her generation’s future and why Cyprus’ birthrate keeps falling.
“I am a refugee on my father’s side, who fought in ’74 and lost all his property, not to mention the trauma that war leaves on a person,” she wrote. “Without a doubt, if the invasion had not happened and I were now living in Varosha, I would not need any benefits or housing assistance from the state since I would have had property from my parent.”
Instead, she rents a flat in Larnaca, receiving just €100 a month in rent subsidy from refugee care. The help comes with strings: if her annual gross income rises by even one cent above €19,546, the subsidy disappears.
Her words are blunt but heartbreaking in their honesty: “I am a young Cypriot woman who cannot acquire her first home without going into debt to the bank because I do not have the privilege of having an inheritance and wealthy parents. I really wonder why the president also mentions the issue of infertility. If I weren’t so stressed about buying my first home, I would go ahead and start a family without a second thought.”
Her testimony captures a bigger truth. While the government celebrates economic growth, a generation of young Cypriots, many of them highly educated, say they feel trapped, forced to choose between survival and dreams.
The post is already resonating with hundreds online, a reminder that statistics about low birthrates, high rents, and stalled housing policies are not just numbers but lived realities.
