AN ELECTION pledge to allow refugees to sell building coefficient on occupied properties to developers in the south could lead the island’s planning system to collapse, critics warned yesterday.
President Tassos Papadopoulos’ camp has been accused by opponents of trying to buy refugee votes ahead of next month’s elections with the proposal.
Yesterday, an official at the Technical Chamber ETEK warned that if the scheme’s net was too wide, it could lead to the total collapse of the planning system in the government-controlled areas.
“It’s a complicated issue with no simple answer,” said ETEK’s Linos Chrysostomou.
He explained that planning was based on the British system and that sale of land coefficient could be used as an incentive in certain cases, such as the renovation of listed buildings.
But the President, he said, had never mentioned exactly, “or at all”, how his plan would work, or whether the total coefficient on occupied properties in the north would be transferred to the south.
“If the total coefficient was transferred, it would mean the total collapse of the current planning system,” he said.
“The plan for Cyprus is already set for the maximum density allowed so if we decide to burden the system with a percentage of the coefficient [from the north] the system will collapse.”
Chrysostomos said he had to believe the President knew what he was doing, and admitted that some transfer could be absorbed.
“I believe they are not stupid. They are giving this as an incentive for loss of use. The reason for it is to make sure refugees take something for the loss of use of their property,” he said.
“But if they do it on a big scale it’s technically impossible. On a small scale it might work, but if it’s on a medium to large scale it will not solve any problems but will create a bigger one for planning.”
Opposition parties yesterday accused Papadopoulos and his government of ignoring refugees for the past five years and of attempting now to exploit them for election purposes.
The move, announced on Thursday, comes at a time when a number of refugees have resorted to the property commission in the north for compensation for their land.
For years, refugees have been unable to use their properties in the north to secure loans in the south, and many have fallen into financial difficulties. They include Mike Tymvios, whose application to the property commission in the north has resulted in a controversial land swap with a Turkish Cypriot who owns land in Larnaca. A financial sweetener to refugees might head off further such cases.
AKEL said yesterday the plan was “deplorable”.
“The support of refugees should not be part of the pre-election subterfuge. It is a basic practical need,” said AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou.
“The non-existence of a study on this issue can only lead to the conclusion that this is just another pre-election volley by the government,” he said.
Papadopoulos responded that a scientific study had already been conducted and a bill had been prepared for Parliament.
But ETEK’s Chrysostomou said the proposal as it stood was “very vague”, adding that if a plan existed for the scheme, ETEK should have been consulted. “But this is the first we’ve heard of it.”
And Kyprianou warned of the implications of the measure: “The practical application is complicated and the legal labyrinths that would result will be so time consuming that it will be impractical to apply the measure.”
He added it would undermine the urban planning policy of the state and the restrictions on development that have been put in place in recent years.
Kyprianou said the real needs of refugees involved financial help to secure decent accommodation for them and their children, and government guarantees for their loans.
