On Thursday 22nd May the plenary session of the Cypriot Parliament approved by a majority vote the extension of the deadline for obtaining a licence for hotels and tourist facilities until 30th November 2025.
The decision applies to all operating hotels and accommodation facilities that have not yet undergone a formal licensing procedure.
The extension will only be granted to establishments that have a building permit for use as a hotel or tourist accommodation, even if their current layout does not fully comply with the approved architectural plans.
Establishments that submit all the necessary documents, except the building permit, by 30 November 2025 will be able to continue operating until 31 August 2026.
If the owners also submit documents to legalise construction deviations before this date, they will be allowed to operate until 30 June 2027 even without a final licence.
In order to extend the period of authorisation to operate, the following is required
- Proof of application for legalisation of construction deviations;
- Proof of payment of the state tax;
- A report from the engineer/architect on the changes made to the building.
It is worth noting that Parliament also approved the AKEL party's amendment.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism is now required to submit reports every six months on the progress of licensing. At the same time, an initiative to ban hotels that fail to obtain a licence on time from participating in state support programmes was rejected.
According to figures recently presented in Parliament, only about 16% of the island's tourist establishments are officially licensed. Very few applications have been submitted in the past five years, despite numerous initiatives.
DISY's Kyriakos Hatziannis described the situation as "inaction and a sorry state of affairs", pointing to bureaucracy and outdated standards and criticising the "fictitious progress" in licensing. Kostas Kostas of AKEL noted that only a small fraction of facilities have been licensed, with 217 applications still pending. He blamed both the authorities and the owners for the situation. Finally, Chrysis Pantelidis of DIKO said that repeated postponements were creating a 'pathology of the system' and that strict implementation of the legislation was needed.