By Elias Hazou
INTERIOR minister Socrates Hasikos on Wednesday defended the government’s latest building relaxations policy against accusations they are tailor-made to benefit certain developers and big businesses.
Speaking to the media, Hasikos insisted the town-planning incentives were for everyone.
In late July, the cabinet decided to introduce special measures allowing town-planning authorities to approve certain existing or planned constructions that would otherwise be illegal.
The amnesty involves additions or changes to existing structures and must have taken place before the end of 2020.
The changes also afford people the possibility to add up to 20 per cent of the building coefficient.
For ordinary people, this meant they could add a small flat above their home or add a room.
But critics say this would ultimately benefit big business, since the relaxations automatically boost the value of their property holdings.
It’s also claimed the relaxations to ordinary homeowners or owners of small business premises were offered as a sop, couching the real aim of the policy.
In particular, media reports zeroed in on the Mall of Cyprus, just outside Nicosia, which is to be sold by the Shacolas Group to a South African investor.
It was implied the new relaxations would allow the owners to make a killing.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Hasikos commented, denying speculation that the Mall of Cyprus was being singled out for special treatment.
Regarding the Mall of Cyprus specifically, he added, the cabinet decided that the owner would be required to compensate Nicosia municipality for any derogations.
Usually, commercial projects benefiting from relaxations compensate the local municipality by co-financing public-works projects.
“Town planning authorities do not look at names. They look at properties, and on the other hand the company in question will pay for these extra [square] meters, and it is not the first time this has happened,” Hasikos said.
The minister suggested it was a storm in a teacup, remarking that when building incentives were given to big businesses two years ago “we didn’t hear anyone protest.”
The extra 20 per cent building coefficient, he noted, likewise applies to homes, flats, factories, artisan homesteads, warehouses and farms.
In addition, refugees would now be able to build atop an existing building (adding up to 150 square meters) or, if the land parcel allows, to build a second home. This applies to refugees and their families only, and the right may not be transferred to third parties.
Hasikos insisted that, altogether, the policies are geared toward the “public interest” and designed to give the economy a boost by encouraging building projects and creating jobs.
But Themos Demetriou, former head of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK), suggested that skepticism about the true motives behind the relaxations is not unjustified, given past experience.
“I’m not necessarily saying this is the case now, but we have seen this sort of thing play out many times before, where relaxations or derogations were targeted at specific people,” he told the Mail.
Such measures never occur in a vacuum, they invariably result from prior specific requests from businesspeople and developers, he added.
“And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the jury is still out on how relaxations will be put to use.”
For example, a commercial project automatically gains in value once the owner is allowed to build an extra floor on the property.
“Say the owner now sells the property to an investor at a higher price, there’s no guarantee the investor will put it to use, but meanwhile the seller has made a tidy profit,” explained Demetriou.
What’s more, it is difficult to imagine how, in the midst of a financial squeeze, people other than those flush with cash will be able to pour money into new building.
“OK, so my house is now theoretically worth more due to the higher building coefficient. But can I actually afford to expand it?”
