Can Cyprus be saved from itself?

Sir,

Working in industry we had two main customers on which the company relied for its very existence.  These companies were wined and dined, and looked after like Royalty, with direct access to the MD if they had any problems. They were, after all, our ‘life-blood’.

Here in Cyprus we had two main customers: the tourism and building industry.  With tourism, the numbers have been falling year on year, but we have continued to make increased profits from the reducing numbers.  And how?  By overcharging those stupid enough to come here and in general we have treated them in a shabby way.

So we ensure these people never come again, and worse will tell their friends of their experience.  In the UK the price of eating out has fallen. For under £12 you can get a decent meal for two, here one restaurant owner has just increased his prices to €17 for a meze! 
With the housing market, we have treated our buyers like fools, promising the earth and failing to deliver on everything from quality to the title deeds.

In the UK, which is our main customer base, buyers are now aware that if buy in Cyprus you will most probably lose your money. To reinforce this there is a British buyer camping outside the Cyprus Embassy. We have managed to shoot ourselves in the proverbial foot.

The promises from the CTO or the promises from the government to look at the housing market and make changes are far too little too late.

Cyprus is dead in the water. Now the government is telling those foreign buyers who were swindled into paying property tax that the criminal law does not apply to developers – says it all for what passes for normality in Cyprus.  You could not make this one up for a TV soap, no one would believe the plot.

Peter G Davis,
Droushia, Paphos