Demonstration outside palace against rising rents

Demonstrators gathered outside the presidential palace on Sunday afternoon to protest against sky rocketing rents around the island.

Organised by the Cyprus Demonstrators against Expense (Pod) and the Limassol-based Right to Shelter, demonstrators said every individual deserves a better future and the state is obliged to offer decent living conditions and equal treatment.

Founder of Pod Constantinos Romanos said Sunday’s demonstration was not just about high rents and the right to a home but a series of issues that affect people including rising fuel costs, minimum wage and education.

He said the demonstration was “for the guy next door who just wants their constitutional rights for a dignified existence.

“We demand the authorities see that we are not just numbers, but people,” he added.

Sunday’s demonstration, he said, would be followed by other moves.

The protest aimed to inform the public of their rights according to the constitution and to the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the organisers.

Last week lawmakers harangued the government for not doing enough to support vulnerable people as housing becomes ever more unaffordable due to rising rents. The discussion at the House interior committee will continue on Monday at which the ministers of labour and the interior are expected to attend.

The House committee heard that rents in Cyprus are higher than in Amsterdam and that during 2017 the average price of flat rentals islandwide went up by 12.5 per cent; in Limassol prices soared by as much as 25 per cent.

During the same year, the average increase in house rentals increased by 9.2 per cent across the country, and by 10.20 per cent in Limassol.

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