This week, the Central Bank of Cyprus published its residential property price index for the second quarter of 2016. Prices…
Next week, Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci will spend five days at Mont Pèlerin hashing out some of the most…
I have long argued that the property aspect of the Cyprus problem cannot be solved until the number-crunchers sit side by side with the political negotiators. This is because one can argue for years over an issue that seems enormous in theory but once you do the numbers, it becomes smaller in practice. For example, a small proportion of Greek Cypriot dispossessed owners owns a very large amount of land, and vice versa.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article showing how it should be possible to keep the property compensation bill below €5bn with a mix of reinstatement, territorial adjustment and a form of incentivised exchange. One issue that could upset this €5bn figure is if legally unsound and politically charged methods are used to calculate compensation values.
Talks to resolve the Cyprus problem start earlier than expected on Friday, and all of a sudden, after more than ten years and lots of tears, people are daring to hope again that a solution might be possible.
According to research, the hardcore ‘no’ vote among Greek Cypriots is about 25%. Interestingly, it is the same size as the hardcore ‘yes’ vote. That leaves a very large 50% of undecided voters. These people will be swayed by whoever has the best strategy for the referendum. Read full article here