Housing schemes in pipeline to deal with skyrocketing rents

The interior ministry is expected to announce housing schemes this month to help deal with the rising rents in Cyprus, Minister Constantinos Petrides said on Friday.

In statements to CyBC, he added that the ministry was looking to create a policy that offers affordable housing to people, and that he had already been in contact with the labour and finance ministries to discuss potential changes to rent subsidies given to individuals receiving the guaranteed minimum income (GMI).

“Rents have risen for many different reasons.  One reason is due to the fact that it’s more difficult to get a home loan and people have turned to renting,” he said.

Petrides added that rents had mainly risen in Nicosia and Limassol, and that this was owed to the fact that there was a bigger demand than supply.

On Monday, the movement for the right to shelter had contacts with political parties in the parliament to discuss the issue.  The movement’s coordinator, Lefteris Georgiou, told the Cyprus Mail they had contacted all political parties for meetings.

The movement held a demonstration over the rising rent prices two days before their contacts with the parliamentary parties.

Georgiou said that while they are trying to help, 11 families had been evicted for not being able to keep up with the rent.

The demonstrators said a place to live is a basic right, not a piece of merchandise. They called for more support as the problem is only getting worse and as such will start affecting a greater number of people.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.