As the start of the new academic year approaches, finding accommodation for students is becoming increasingly problematic, given the relatively small stock of student hostels and the fact that many landlords rent their accommodation on a short-term basis.
This is according to the head of the Cyprus Association of Estate Agents, Marios Kinegirou.
He said the worst situation was in Limassol. Incidentally, one-bedroom apartments in this city are currently available for rent from €1,000 to €1.1,000 per month. In Nicosia, the same type of apartment costs between 600 and 700 euros, and in Larnaca and Paphos between 500 and 600 euros.
There are similar differences for two-bedroom apartments, with prices in Limassol ranging from €1.4 thousand to €1.5 thousand, in Nicosia from €800 to €900 (the same as in Paphos) and in Larnaca from €700 to €800.
Kinegirou noted that even if two students live in a two-bedroom apartment in Limassol, they will still have to pay more than for the same apartment in other major cities.
The rise in prices is due to short-term rentals and the demand created by the influx of foreign workers, especially in IT companies - said Kinegirou.
The head of the association said that a ban on daily rentals should be imposed, arguing that the short-term rental market favours the price of long-term rental properties.
He stressed that daily rentals deprive the Cypriot property market of thousands of properties that could be offered for long-term rentals. This, he argued, is the reason for the skyrocketing prices of houses and flats and their maintenance. He cited the recent example of Barcelona, whose authorities have announced that the city will stop letting properties on a daily basis from 2029. The problem of short-term rentals is of particular concern in Greece, where a public debate on solutions is underway. One proposal is to ban daily rentals as such.
Interestingly, of the 14,446 short-term rental properties in Cyprus as of June 2024, only 7,200 are officially registered and legally entitled to host guests, although it is believed that around 11,000 of them have applied for registration.