British contractors shy away from political implications of massive Boghazi development

THE director of a South Wales firm of architects “doesn’t foresee any legal problems at all” after his company won a contract to design 250 holiday apartments for a new £15 million scheme in the occupied areas.

Powell Dobson will be working closely with Turkish Cypriot developer Sarcon Homes to deliver phase three of the holiday development, situated on the southern edge of the occupied Karpas Peninsula.

The holiday development at Boghazi will consist of one, two, three and four-storey town houses, studios and penthouse apartments totalling 214,000 square feet on a three-acre site, which will be available on an owner occupied and buy-to-let basis.

Tim Percival, director of Powell Dobson, refused to be drawn on the political aspects of the development, which is being built on Greek Cypriot land, referring enquiries to Sarcon, and saying: “As far as I am aware, there should be no legal problems for us, as Sarcon own the titles to the land.”

Sarcon say the deeds are exchange deeds, meaning it was Greek Cypriot land given as compensation by the Turkish Cypriot authorities for land left behind in the south.

Percival said yesterday: “Northern Cyprus is really beginning to take off as a holiday destination. It has become a lot more accessible over recent years and people are beginning to discover just how beautiful it is.”

Detailed planning application will be submitted over the next three months with the start of work on the site planned for the end of summer. The development will be phased and will take approximately two years to complete in its entirety.

In the aftermath of the Greeek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan last year, the north has seen a massive development boom, with the coastlines around Kyrenia and between Famagusta and Boghazi fast disappearing behind hundreds of new holiday homes.

Greek Cypriot refugees have responded with a flurry of legal suits in the Cyprus courts, in an attempt to test new European rules allowing sentences to be carried out across the European Union.

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.