Cyprus Can't Quantify Its Housing Shortage as Apartment Rents Climb 56.5% in Five Years

According to Cyprus Property News, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou has acknowledged in a written reply to a parliamentary question that the ministry cannot currently establish how many additional homes Cyprus needs, nor predict when or by how much greater supply will affect prices and rents. He cited the difficulty of measuring demand, which shifts with economic conditions, investment, job creation and population movements. The rent figures quoted in the question show the scale of the pressure. The apartment rent index stood at 156.5 in the final quarter of 2025 (final quarter of 2020 = 100), a cumulative rise of 56.5%, and in the second quarter of 2026 it was 7.36% higher than a year earlier. Meanwhile, Statistical Service figures cited by the MP put the housing stock at about 466,000 homes in 2020 and around 517,000 in 2024, with 8,692 homes completed in 2024. Building activity is picking up. The ministry reports 8,159 permits issued in 2025 versus 6,827 in 2024 (+19.5%), with the number of homes planned under them up 42.7%. From January to May 2026, 3,650 permits were issued versus 2,764 a year earlier (+32.1%), and planned homes rose from 5,484 to 8,978 (+63.7%). The minister cautioned that permits do not mean the shortfall has been filled, since homes must be built before they reach the market. The ministry says its Planning Incentives schemes and Build to Rent could support the delivery of more than 4,000 homes over the next two years, about 1,400 of them for the affordable segment; these are potential, not completed, homes. It also expects over €22 million to go into the Special Affordable Housing Fund through purchases of extra building density, and the government is seeking to speed up permits for about 10,000 homes, which could bring construction starts forward by one to two years. On possible Schengen entry, the minister said it is too early to estimate any effect on housing demand or prices.