A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees was held in Cyprus on Thursday 5th September.
It was attended by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou.
During discussions on the government's KtiZo programme, Ioannou said that the construction of the first housing blocks would begin as early as October 2024. He mentioned that the work will start in the Cypriot capital and then cover other cities on the island. The minister also mentioned the challenges that will have to be overcome on the way to the implementation of the programme. These include: inheritance issues, the refusal of heirs to vacate their homes, and the financing of beneficiaries. The latter issue is expected to be addressed with the help of the Central Agency for Equitable Burden Sharing, which has agreed to provide loans to those in need.
The minister said that so far more than 70 per cent of the beneficiaries (287) have expressed interest in participating in the project, while 6.5 per cent of the beneficiaries (24) have declined to participate. At the same time, 165 beneficiaries are receiving rental subsidies, while 25 apartments are being provided with storage space for personal belongings. As regards the demolition process of the twenty blocks of flats recognised as emergency, five of them, located in Nicosia, have been demolished. The remaining buildings will be demolished in the coming months.
It should be recalled that the government programme covers a total of 358 buildings with 3,128 flats in Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca.
Of these, 43 have been identified as having critical stability and structural problems. These buildings, the most dangerous, will be prioritised. They will be demolished and replaced by new buildings within three and a half years.
A further 70 buildings have stability problems in a number of structural elements, and 245 buildings have less critical deficiencies. These two groups of buildings will be renovated rather than demolished. The renovation programme will last 10 years. The tenants of the 43 most dangerous blocks have already begun to leave, in return for a subsidy.
People have been offered two options:
- temporarily move to another location and then receive an apartment in a new building that will replace their demolished complex; or
- receive a lump sum compensation from the state for their property and their share of the land.
The KtiZo programme divides beneficiaries into three categories:
- Category 1 includes first generation refugees, as well as second, third and fourth generation refugees who inherited emergency housing, if they have a title deed.
- Category 2 includes those refugees who bought properties in housing estates with money allocated to them by the state.
- Category 3 includes residents who bought a flat from a refugee.
Residents of shelters who did not receive an apartment in a house built in place of the demolished one can claim compensation, the amount of which depends on the cadastral value of the property and land. If the shelter is to be repaired rather than demolished, the cost will be borne by the state.