GREEN Party deputy George Perdikis yesterday blasted a government decision to increase incentives for creating golf courses by allowing the construction of more rooms to house golfers.
Previous regulations allowed for the accommodation of up to 750 people (around 200 homes) near the golf courses. But developers have argued that golf courses were not viable and that the incentive was not enough, so the Ministry of Commerce is said to have proposed to allow accommodation for up to 4,000 people.
But the suggestion has angered both Perdikis and the Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) who said it would cause the price of property to skyrocket. They also accused the government of showing favouritism towards big developers and creating unfair competition.
“It’s a clever but unfair proposal that causes the creation of double standards because it allows some people to go ahead with tourist development on cheap property, with the pretext that there’s going to be a golf course,” Perdikis said.
“The government will allow them to build more houses around a golf course with the excuse that more golfers will come to the island, but our information is that most of the golfers coming to Cyprus now do not stay in tourist homes built around the golf areas. “Most of those who buy or live in these kinds of places are normal tourists who want to find a home in Cyprus and buy property near a golf field.”
Perdikis rubbished comments by Commerce and Industry Minister George Lillikas, who said the government was looking to boost tourism.
“Rubbish, they are looking into the interests of big developers,” he said.
Linos Chrysostomou of ETEK, echoed Perdikis’ comments, saying that if the government proposal is approved by the cabinet next week it would be scandalous.
“The value of land where development is not allowed is far lower than land where development is allowed,” he told the Cyprus Mail said.
“If for example a donum of farmland costs £2,000 and the government gives them rights to develop that land to build a house, it’s like increasing the value of the land from £2,000 to £40,000,” he added.
“If a developer sells these proposed 1,000 homes at let’s say £200,000 each then that means £200 million,” Chrysostomou said.
“If we say that his profit on the low side is £30 million, that means that by giving him an incentive to build a golf course, the government has increased the value of his land by £30 million, land that he couldn’t develop before,” he added.
“We are not against golf courses and we are not against big businessmen because they play an important role in our economy, but I think it’s a scandal if the government proposal is approved, it’s obvious that it’s done just to help somebody.
“It will create unfavourable competition to those other developers who purchased land at £60,000 a donum. Is it fair on them that others purchased land at £2,000 a donum and can now develop it and make millions in profit?”
