LAWMAKERS have tabled an addition to the bill for transferring development rights from one property to another, calling for the measure to apply to properties owned in the occupied areas as well.
The proposal, submitted by all parties except ruling AKEL, has been added to the bill which hopes to regulate problems that arise for owners whose properties are affected, either by public works or the area being deemed environmentally protected. The plan is for building rights to be transferred to government-owned land elsewhere, in areas that will be specified by the Interior Ministry.
Fifteen MPs submitted the proposal to the House Interior Committee yesterday, calling for 12 per cent of the value of people’s occupied properties to be transferred to land in the Republic.
Presenting the proposal, DIKO deputy Sophocles Fyttis said the government’s bill was ideal for having this addition – which, for the record, was part of former President, the late Tassos Papadopoulos’, pre-election commitments.
“There will be a limit of 12 per cent on the current value of the land, with the highest payable amount being €600,000,” said Fyttis. “It will be transformed into a building factor for development or sale, through an organisation that will be created through the bill submitted by the government.”
The proposal, he added, will lead to a fairer share of the 1974 Turkish invasion’s burdens and increase property owners’ solvency in the north.
Furthermore, Fyttis said it would rejuvenate the construction industry and prevent people from applying to the Turkish Cypriot properties’ commission to receive compensation for their land.
“We are calling on the government and AKEL to not react but examine and view positively the added provisions to this legislation that is under discussion,” said Fyttis.
Explaining AKEL’s stance, the Committee Chairman, AKEL’s Yiannos Lamaris, said such a prospect would be “wrong and inappropriate”, adding that such a massive problem should not be resolved with fragmented moves.
He added, “In most areas of the occupied areas, there aren’t zones, therefore most refugees won’t be able to transfer anything to the free areas anyway”.
Lamaris concluded that if the proposal was passed, it would create a huge distortion in the Republic’s property market.
