Newsroom
Imagine leaving your student room in the morning, coffee in hand, and stepping straight into the narrow streets around Faneromeni.
That is the picture Nicosia Mayor Charalambos Prountzos is painting as more than 200 private student rooms take shape in the capital’s historic center.
The new accommodation will be added to the 70 places already created through two municipal student housing projects. According to the mayor, the private rooms are being developed under a scheme intended to offer students more affordable rents while breathing new life into old and, in some cases, listed buildings.
For students and their parents, the most immediate benefit is obvious: more housing choices at a time when finding a reasonably priced place near a university can feel like a course in itself.
However, the mayor’s post did not provide specific rental prices or explain when all the new rooms will become available.
The bigger plan goes beyond student housing. Prountzos said the municipality is working toward a historic center that can accommodate about 1,000 students by 2029, alongside permanent residents and businesses.
The area already hosts facilities belonging to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. If plans remain on schedule, the University of Cyprus’ Department of History and Archaeology and its Archaeological Research Unit are also expected to move into the historic Faneromeni building in October 2028.
That could mean more than simply filling student rooms. Hundreds of young residents would bring daily foot traffic to cafés, shops, and other small businesses, while occupied buildings could make the old city feel livelier beyond office hours.
Prountzos said it was moving to see lights returning to buildings that had remained quiet for years.
“Buildings need life,” he wrote, describing young people as the healthiest and most vibrant source of that renewal.
Among the projects highlighted was Goni, where a listed building has been restored and converted for student use. The mayor congratulated the investors, architects, and others involved for preserving its character while giving it a new purpose.
The promise is an appealing one: historic buildings saved, students housed, and more people living in the heart of Nicosia.
The real test will be whether the rooms are genuinely affordable—and whether the arrival of students creates a balanced neighborhood rather than simply a new property market. If it works, however, Faneromeni may soon offer more than an attractive balcony view. It could become the center of a younger, busier old city. [Nicosia Municipality](https://www.nicosia.org.cy/)
