Title deeds and state revenue

Sir,

I could not help but think that the answer to the current government’s need for more money might be a lot more easily addressed by solving the title deeds problem than by other proposed measures such getting the Church to pay back-taxes.

If there are 100,000 buyers on the island – presumably mostly “foreign” – still awaiting their deeds at an average of, say, €5,000 per property, that’s €500,000,000 of revenue just waiting to be collected. And most of it from foreigners and or offshore sources.

So how about giving the developers, the banks and the Land Registry a deadline of December 31, 2008 to get it sorted out or face penalties such as the automatic assignment of the deeds to the purchaser, once they have paid the purchase price? That would certainly provide a very quick boost to the government’s coffers while at the same time improving Cyprus’ currently tarnished reputation as a place to invest in property.

Might even solve the developers’ problem of declining sales.

Now wouldn’t that be poetic?

Bob Squirrell, Paphos

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