On September 15, the second phase of the fast-tracking of building permits started in Cyprus.
This was announced by Interior Minister Nicos Nouris.
Thanks to the new system, issuance of planning permissions for many residential, commercial and mixed-use projects will become easier and much faster. The innovations will affect residential complexes, which include no more than four houses, or no more than 12 residential premises, as well as apartment buildings with a maximum of 20 apartments, mixed-type projects, commercial and office buildings with an area of up to 1,000 m2.
Applications for a building permit under the new system will be accepted electronically only through the Hippodamus portal, which has been successfully operating since June last year.
On October 1, 2020, the government launched a new system of issuance of architectural and construction licenses.
According to the innovations, the processing time for applications has been reduced from 18 months to 10 days when applying online and to 20 days when applying in writing. The procedure for considering applications and issuing planning or construction licenses was quite complicated and time-consuming, regardless of the scale of the project.
The innovations concern the issuance of permits (urban planning and building permits) for a maximum of two residential units on a registered site. The goal was to serve citizens with efficient and streamlined procedures while creating economies of scale.
It is worth noting that the implementation of the third stage of the program will begin after the Parliament adopts the "Law on the simplification of procedures for strategic investments", which is under consideration and concerns large investments exceeding 20 million euros.
As expected, it will be possible to obtain a building permit for a large-scale facility within 12 months. According to the innovations, investors will have to appoint a project manager who will act as an intermediary with government services.
The Minister of the Interior emphasized that after the cancellation of the Citizenship by Investment program and the difficulties brought by the coronavirus pandemic, the government wants to help foreign investors through simplified licensing procedures in order to make Cyprus a place to invest in sustainable development.
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