MPs welcome solution for refugee families left without property titles

The interior ministry has found solutions to property title problems facing refugee families in Zygi, Mari and areas outside designated refugee settlements, MPs on the House refugee committee heard on Tuesday. Committee chairman and Akel MP Nikos Kettiros said a bill, to be put to the next plenary session, will let several hundred refugee homes built on state land outside refugee settlements receive titles. The gap in the law emerged only when the issuing of titles accelerated from 2023, although the underlying legislation dates from 2006. In regards to Zygi, he said the ministry will put a proposal to the cabinet next week. The Larnaca district local government organisation (EOA) had wanted to recover houses built there by the town planning department, but the ministry decided they should stay with the beneficiaries or their heirs. Elam MP Linos Ioannis Hadjigeorgiou said the case covers some 12 housing units, for five homes whose owners have died. A title can go to one of their children, while for three owners still alive, either they or a child can take the title. Two empty units will go through the ministry’s waiting list, and the remaining two will carry a lifetime right. He said the outcome showed that “when problems are brought to attention and there is substantial political will”, solutions can be found. Homes in Mari On the matter of Mari, displaced people living in houses once owned by Turkish Cypriots will stay there for life, Kettiros said, but without the right to pass the use permit to other children. Alma’s Litsa Constantinides said the homes outside settlements were built legally but their owners were denied titles. The amendment, she said, will let families who have waited for years “finally secure a property title”. The issue goes back to the aftermath of 1974, when the state-built estates to house Greek Cypriots refugees. Titles passing the homes into private ownership have been issued since a cabinet decision after 2007. In April, the cabinet approved a decision allowing titles for homes with planning irregularities, though they cannot be sold until the irregularities are fixed. By then 17,418 titles or lease certificates had been issued, with ministry data showing that 7,859 units in government estates and self-housing schemes still had neither a title nor a lease certificate. Leasehold certificates are issued instead of titles where homes stand on Turkish Cypriot land.