Forced sale, foreclosure and compulsory acquisition

If you have received Notice ΙΒ from your lender, you have ten days to appoint your own independent valuer. Call +357 96569477.

Two situations put a value on your property without your agreement: a lender enforcing a mortgage, and a public authority acquiring land. In both, the figure that ends up being used is heavily influenced by whether you engaged early. In both, most owners engage late.

CPA acts for property owners, and for the lawyers advising them, in both.

Foreclosure and forced sale

The foreclosure framework sits in Part VIA of the Immovable Property (Transfer and Mortgage) Law N.9/1965, inserted by amending Law 142(I)/2014. It moves quickly, and the most important step in it belongs to you.

The ten-day window after Notice ΙΒ

Once the mortgagee serves Notice ΙΒ, the mortgagor has ten days to appoint an independent valuer. The mortgagee appoints another. Article 44Δ requires two independent valuations, and the reserve price at the first auction is a minimum of 80% of market value as determined by those valuations.

If you do not appoint a valuer within the ten days, the mortgagee may appoint both valuers. The value that sets the reserve price on your property is then determined entirely by valuers your lender chose.

Ten days is not long. It includes the time you will spend deciding whether to instruct a lawyer. If a notice has been served, call before you have finished reading it.

Why the reserve price matters

The 80% floor is calculated from the market value the two valuations determine. Every euro by which that market value is understated reduces the reserve price, and the reserve price is the protection standing between the property and a sale well below what it is worth. Repossessed homes in Cyprus have been auctioned at around 27% below market value. That gap is the reason the valuation stage is worth contesting properly.

A valuation prepared for this purpose has to be defensible. We inspect, gather and verify comparable transactions, and set out the analysis in full, so that the figure can be examined by the other valuer, by a lawyer, or by a court.

If proceedings are already under way

Where the reserve price is challenged, or the conduct of the process is disputed, we prepare valuation evidence for those proceedings under PS 1 and PS 2 of the Red Book. See our page on expert witness and court valuations.

The framework is changing

New bills to tighten the foreclosure rules were before Parliament in February 2026. The description above reflects the framework as it stood when this page was last reviewed. Before relying on any deadline stated here, confirm the current position with your lawyer.

Compulsory acquisition and requisition

Compulsory acquisition of property in Cyprus is governed by the Compulsory Acquisition of Property Law N.15/1962, under Article 23 of the Constitution. Requisition is dealt with under Law 21/1962.

The basis of compensation

Compensation is based on the market value of the property at the date of the acquisition notice, disregarding the compulsory nature of the taking. The property is valued as though it were being sold in the ordinary market, not at a discount reflecting the fact that you have no choice.

The 30-day objection period

There is a 30-day period after publication of the notice in the Gazette in which to object. As with a foreclosure notice, the period runs whether or not you have taken advice, and the strength of an objection depends substantially on having a valuation to put behind it.

Partial takings: severance and injurious affection

Where only part of a holding is taken — a strip along a frontage, a corner, a section crossed by a scheme — the compensation is not simply the value of the land taken. The assessment must account for the change in value of the land you retain, including:

• severance, where the taking divides the holding or leaves a fragment that cannot be used as before
• injurious affection, where the retained land is worse off because of the scheme or the works carried out on the land taken

Partial takings are where Land Registry assessments and private valuations most often diverge, because the effect on the retained land is easy to understate and difficult to quantify without a proper analysis. We assess the retained land before and after, and set out the difference and the reasoning behind it.

Divergence, and how it is resolved

Land Registry and private valuations frequently produce different figures on the same acquisition. Where the parties cannot agree, the court determines the final figure, and the party with the better-evidenced valuation is in the stronger position. Our reports are written with that endpoint in mind.

The three-year return right

If the acquiring authority does not use the property for the purpose stated in the acquisition within three years, the owner may apply for its return. If your land was taken some years ago for a scheme that was never built, this is worth raising with your lawyer.

A note on the Land Registry General Valuation

Owners in both situations are often shown the Land Registry General Valuation (Γενική Εκτίμηση) at base date 1 January 2021 and told that it is the value of their property. It is not.

The General Valuation is a mass-appraisal figure produced for tax purposes. The Department of Lands and Surveys itself states that it cannot be used for sales, investment or borrowing. It is not market value, it is not property-specific, and it should not be accepted as the basis of what a lender or an authority pays you.

Separately, the Director of Lands and Surveys may substitute his own valuation for transfer fee purposes where the declared price does not represent real market value. The applicant pays on that figure, and may then object, request a revaluation and ultimately take the matter to court. We prepare valuations for those objections.

Instructing us

If a notice has been served, telephone rather than email — the deadlines in this area are short and run from service, not from when the file reaches your lawyer. Have the notice, the title deed and, if you have it, the mortgage documentation to hand. We will confirm scope and fee in writing, and where a ten-day window is running we will say immediately whether we can act within it.

Last reviewed: August 2026. The foreclosure framework in particular was subject to proposed amendment before Parliament in February 2026. Confirm the current position with your lawyer.

Call now about a notice: +357 96569477 · +357 25254222 · [email protected]