On Tuesday 10 December, the Cypriot Ministry of the Interior announced that an accelerated procedure for granting construction permits for low-impact projects has come into force.
The scheme will apply to projects for which applications were submitted before 1 July 2024.
According to the ministry, the initiative is aimed at speeding up documents for low-risk housing projects as part of a wider reform of the system. Instead of going through the whole process, these applicants will be able to complete a special application form and submit it to the relevant local authority, which will consider it and make a final decision within two working days.
The measure is being implemented as a transitional phase under the new development consent system before the introduction of a new process for assessing and granting planning permission for low-risk developments,' the ministry said.
The main aim is to help local authorities deal with the backlog of Category A planning applications that were submitted before 1 July and have already been granted planning permission. The total number of these is around 5,000. The ministry said the move would help create a faster and more automated system for dealing with town planning and building applications.
As a reminder, on 2 October Cyprus introduced a new system for issuing building permits for private houses and semi-detached houses with a completion date of January 2025.
According to the new practice, the necessary permits for the construction of low-risk properties will be issued within 40 working days. This will reduce delays and the time taken to issue permits and speed up the start of construction work,' the ministry said.
Once the delay in processing applications for low-risk buildings has been eliminated, the system will shift to speeding up the issuance of construction permits for medium-risk projects. These include 4-storey buildings with 20 flats or complexes with no more than 12 townhouses. All of these projects are category B. It is expected that permits for these projects will be issued within 80 working days.