We had high hopes that as a result of concerted efforts by various groups towards the Government to “do something” about the problems that the building industry is facing, that something would have been done so far. Alas, we are not informed of any pending measures that will be undertaken, neither there are any discussions going on, on the subject. This state of affairs, not only causes numerous social and economic problems, but it encourages illegalities, corruption and bad publicity of this country, especially abroad. At the end of the day, if the situation is not dealt with now, there will be so many problems, that any Government will not be able to address them and it will have a choice either to give a “pardon” to all illegal buildings and start all over again, or to take strict measures, which the Government will not be able to enforce (something like the illegal immigrants which are now left loose, because there are not enough detention centers and staff to handle them).

We “hear” from time to time that the Government will do this and that, but we see no results. So, if we are to highlight certain problems by priority, we would submit the following:

1. The delay in the issue of the planning permit is well known. Certain local authorities, those which relate to the central town planning office, are improving, whereas others, those which relate to Municipalities are getting worse. Nicosia for example has increased its 8 month delay 6 months ago, to over 15 month delay in issuing a town planning permit now!! Limassol is not so bad, but again the delays are there, whereas Paphos Municipality is a good example to be followed. Based on our experience, Paphos Municipality is responding much faster than the other local authorities and this is to its credit.
   
   It appears that at the end of the day and based on our own experience for each authority, it all depends on the persons who actually carry out the job and it does not have to do necessarily with the local Mayor and the local councilors as such. As an example we have reported a case in hand to the Limassol Mayor on a delayed permit and this after 8 months of waiting. Within 2 days after our complain, we had a written reply by a technician of the Municipality, which must have been “told off” requiring all sorts of minor things (they could have been dealt through the telephone) and gave us 14 days deadline to reply!!
   
   On another occasion we were pleasantly surprised by the technical team of Strovolos Municipality, who felt it was more important to get the job done, rather than get bogged down to minor details.
   
   Larnaca Municipality is quite efficient, as opposed to Paralimni Municipality, which should be awarded, in terms of building permits inefficiency, the Nobel Award.

2. The withdrawal of the tourist beds is yet to be implemented after 2 years of introducing the measure. In the meantime the illegal conversions continue and if and when the measure will be implemented, with the fast rate of conversion that it is happening now, there will be no hotels to be converted in the future.

3. The building amnesty, an excellent measure, but wrongly introduced and which was supposed to be corrected and re-introduced, is still in the waiting list after 2 years of waiting.

4. The V.A.T. on Cyprus property purchases, plus the transfer fees, was supposed to be altered so that where V.A.T. is imposed, transfer fees will not apply. It is still waiting in the never ending waiting queue of problems.

5. The objectionable certificate of final approval which relates to a building’s occupation, was supposed to be altered so that the occupation requirement is detached to the certificate issue (it is still pending).

6. etc etc

We have offered, as a suggestion to the Government, the adoption of deputy Ministers who will have enough power to handle the numerous items. The system, as it is now, it is impossible for a Minister (in this case the Minister of Interior) to handle. There is just not enough time. In the case of the Ministry of Interior we would suggest the adoption of deputy Ministers who will handle the following:

• Issue of Permits + Titles

• Refugee housing

• Immigration + foreign labor

• Town Planning Matters

A case in hand is the comedy T.V. series “Yes Mr Minister”, where the civil service was blocking the various measures that a Minister decides to take. If you have the chance to talk to any Cypriot Minister (present and past) he will confirm that the scenario must have been based from the Cyprus Government!

We get so frustrated at times, that we tend to incline towards taking drastic measures in hope that the situation will be improved. The closing of the Limassol-Nicosia highway for 5 minutes is one suggestion, as is the demonstration outside the Ministry of the Interior and others. This sort of activities are of course, quite illegal, but what else is there left to do?

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