Thursday, 24 January 2008

Northern Cyprus Villas Secrets

By William Marind

Compared with other international financial centres, Cyprus offers a distinct benefit in the form of double taxation treaties. Agreements with an increasing number of countries eliminate the double taxation of income earned in any one of these countries. In practice, the tax levied by one country is credited against the tax levied in the taxpayer's country of residence. Where different tax rates apply, the tax payer will ultimately not pay more than the higher of the two rates of the respectively countries.

Transactions and payments are simply made through your foreign deposit account. The Cyprus currency system is based on the decimal system. One Cyprus Pound is divided into 100 cents. Coins range in value from one cent to 50 cents and four bank notes are in circulation: 1, 5, 10 and 20.

There is no difficulty in finding apartments to buy in any of the towns in Cyprus. Land development into apartments is very common and there is an abundance available for sale at any time all over Cyprus, the vast majority being very new. There is also a tendency to sell apartments "on paper". (ie when construction plans are still on the drawing board), or during construction, as a means of raising part of the finance for the project.Apartment prices are not uniform. They vary to a great extent with the location, the quality of the project and the town where they are situated. It is usual for developers to give credit terms of payment when selling these flats.

The next step is to appoint an architect to carry out the design. There is an abundance of well qualified architects on the island and many capable technicians as well. We suggest that you appoint an architect for the purpose (not an engineer or technician). Architect fees range from 4%-6% (on the building cost) but you can agree also on a fixed fee. The prevailing fees are 3.8% on the building cost for a complete set of architectural plans and 1.6% for supervision (including the issuing of certificates).

The Block: Try to choose a small block of flats. A five storey building accommodating a maximum of 10 to 15 units is ideal. Large blocks have problems primarily related to their management and lack of privacy. Bear in mind, however, that smaller blocks have a higher common service bill. Try to avoid the buying of flats on blocks with shops on their ground floor, since these are usually the cause of nuisance.

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