Studios in Cyprus: main advantages and disadvantages

Buying a property in Cyprus is an excellent idea for many reasons. You can buy a house to live there all year round, or a holiday apartment, a place to stay during bisness trips, you can buy real estate for rent and even as an investment. There are a lot of options. And the studio seems to be an excellent solution in all plans.

Studio in Cyprus (as well as in Europe) consists of one large room that combines an entrance hall, a room and a kitchen. There is only a separate bathroom and in some cases a storage room.

Plus #1: large living space

We have all heard about the "horrors" of studios in China, where sometimes only 3 m2 is allocated for living! And there are apartments in East Europe that occupy 10-12 m2.

There are no such cramped studios in Cyprus. The average area of any studio apartment is 30 m2. Of course, there are smaller apartments of 25-27 m2, but there are also huge studios of 40-60 m2. So you can choose housing for your needs.

Plus #2: the possibility of redevelopment

If you want to buy an apartment in Cyprus at the construction stage, then you very likely want to redevelop the plan of your property immediately. This practice is common for business and luxury class apartments.

If the developer does not provide such an opportunity or you purchase ready-made housing, then you can perform the redevelopment by yourself. However, you can live without it: in a spacious Cyprus studio, you can always delimit the space by zoning.

You can read more about zoning in our article.

Plus #3: the apartment is located in a modern new building complex

Combining a kitchen with a living room is not new for Cyprus. Rather, it's a good old tradition. Because of it the apartments on the island are called apartments. But before, the apartment always had at least one separate bedroom.

But one common space for everything, excluding the bathroom, is an innovation for Cyprus. Therefore, studio apartments can only be found in new buildings. It should be noted that this gives residents many advantages:

1. closed protected area; as a rule, there is a Parking space also under protection;
2. the presence of its own walking place and / or playground;
3. good quality of building materials,
4. the use of new construction technologies;
5. the presence of panoramic windows;
6. many modern new buildings have heating or the possibility of its connection unlike the old housing stock;
7. low resource consumption (especially in classes A and B) – and consequently, savings on the maintenance of the apartment;
8. individual complexes have their own swimming pool, gym, etc.;
9. also, individual complexes offer apartment maintenance services which is convenient if you do not live in an apartment all the time or want to rent it out.

Also, the new building makes it possible to choose an apartment on the upper levels — up to the 35th floor. Old buildings rarely exceed the 10-storey limit.

Plus #4: many new buildings have spacious terrace, a loggia or an open / covered terrace

The terrace is an extra space! Which can be used as a recreation area or an extra room.

If you consider that the dry and warm climate of Cyprus allows you to spend a lot of time outdoors, then a loggia is a great way to expand your living space.

How to arrange a balcony in Cyprus — read our article.

Plus #5: low price

Of course, a small living space costs less than a large one. Although here you need to understand that a square meter can cost more — but everything depends on the location, on the class of housing, and on many other factors.

Buying a studio in Cyprus will be ideal for those who are not yet ready to invest heavily in local real estate. In addition, this option is optimal for students and those who are going to live on the island temporarily.

Plus #6: small utility costs

Here, first of all, we are talking about electricity consumption. It depends on the area of the apartment. Moreover, if you have not lived in Cyprus yet, then take into account two important points:

1. Electricity in apartments is involved in all aspects of life. It is used for stoves (the stove can be gas, but this option is more popular in private homes), for water heaters (there is no centralized hot water supply here), for all electrical appliances and for heating rooms.
2. Winter in Cyprus is cool, so heating will have to be used anyway. Electricity in Cyprus is expensive, so it really makes sense to save it. And of course, it is cheaper to heat one room rather than a multi-room apartment.

Water is another scarce resource in Cyprus, but its consumption is not closely related to the area of housing.

Plus #7: it is easy to rent out

Single apartments and studios are the most popular option among tenants. As a rule, such rental housing is needed for young people, married couples without children, business travelers, students.

It is also worth taking a closer look at the short-term (tourist) rental market. Here, too, the demands for spacious housing are low, since people come to relax and walk, and not sit in the apartment. So it is always easier to rent a small apartment.

Plus #8: the most profitable investment

Not only in Cyprus, but also in many other countries, buying a studio is the most profitable investment possible. The fact is that it is small apartments that grow most significantly in price, when compared in percentage terms.

The most profitable scheme is to purchase a studio at the so-called “excavation stage”. By the end of construction, such real estate can grow by almost a third, and a few years after construction is completed, by the same amount. Considering that the demand for real estate in Cyprus is growing, all apartments will increase in value.

Of course, you need to carefully choose a developer company and carefully check its reputation. You can get acquainted with the most famous and reliable developers of Limassol in our review.

Minus #1: Small amount of space

We note right away: “not enough space” is a very loose concept. For families of more than two people, any one-room apartment will seem cramped. In addition, in such apartments there is usually one bathroom, and only in some options for elite housing there are two bathrooms.

According to Eurostat, in Cyprus there are 2 rooms per person (data from 2003, but the situation has not changed much during this time), which is about 60 m2.

Therefore, studios in Cyprus are still considered a housing option for one person, maximum for a young family of two. And families with children prefer at least 2-bedroom apartments.

Minus #2: One shared space

Of course, an apartment without partitions and interior walls seems very spacious, but this is only a visual effect, and for life this room can be extremely inconvenient:

1. lack of an entrance hall - for some apartments without halls seems unhygienic, for others - just uncomfortable;
2. the kitchen, combined with the rest of the space, has the smell of cooking, and it's unhygienic;
3. the place to sleep is not separated by walls, therefore, family members can interfere with each other's rest;
4. the inability to receive guests separately from personal areas (bedroom, office, etc.);
5. living and working in such an apartment together is very difficult, almost impossible.

Of course, some of the problems can be solved by zoning and even make a three-room apartment out of a spacious studio. But all this requires cost and attention, as well as permission for redevelopment. Therefore, if you do not like one open common space, it is better to immediately take a closer look at one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments instead of a studio.

Minus #3: Not enough natural light

In the vast majority of cases, there is only one window in the studio. Even if it is large and panoramic, full-length, there may not be enough light for the far corners of the apartment. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem using artificial lighting.

There are two nuances here: artificial light will never replace natural light, and sometimes it becomes very important for people who work at home in a certain field (for example, designers, artists, etc.). And constantly, even during the day, turning on the light in the apartment is an extra cost of electricity. Recall that electricity is quite expensive in Cyprus, so they try to save it in every possible way.

So, there were 8 pluses and only 3 minuses, but the latter have a lot of weight. Drawing conclusions, we came to the obvious: a studio apartment in Cyprus is suitable for small families or for temporary residence (for example, if you come to visit the island for several months a year). The studio is also good as an investment object.

Interested in buying property in Cyprus? Welcome to the DOM! Here you will find options for houses and apartments in Limassol, Paphos, Larnaca and Famagusta, as well as get the help of experienced professionals.

Read also:

1. 10 ways to reduce electricity costs in Cyprus
2. Two floors, a terrace and a gorgeous sea view: new buildings in Cyprus with exclusive apartments
3. Medical tourism in Cyprus
4. Paphos or Limassol: all pros and cons
5. 10 reasons to move to Cyprus with children
6. Plus Properties in Cyprus
7. Long-term prospects for buying real estate in Larnaca