Transfer Of Property and Provision of Title Deeds in the Name of «Enclaved Buyers»

The Immovable Property (Transfer and Mortgage) Law, was amended in 2025 by Law 110(Ι)/2025, thereby enhancing even more the protection afforded to a portion of citizens characterized as “enclaved buyers”, by facilitating the transfer of Title Deeds.

Enclaved (or “trapped”) buyers are property purchasers who have fulfilled all their contractual obligations to the seller but are unable to obtain the Title Deed for their property because the seller has mortgaged the property or has other encumbrances.

The Preamble of the 2025 Amending Law reads as follows:

“WHEREAS, by the Transfer and Mortgage of Real Estate (Amendment) (No. 10) Law of 2015, articles 44ΙΗ to 44ΚΖ were introduced into Part VIB of the basic law with the aim of protecting a portion of citizens characterized as “enclaved buyers”,

AND WHEREAS, by the Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) (Amendment) Law of 2023, the legislation in force until then was amended, in order to ensure the procedure for the purchase and transfer of immovable property and to resolve the serious problem with buyers of immovable property who, despite having fully fulfilled their contractual obligations towards the seller, the seller is unable due to the existence of encumbrances to transfer the property in their name,

AND WHEREAS, according to the Civil Appeal No. 285/2018, which was issued on 20 June 2024, the provisions of articles 44ΙΘ to 44ΚΒ of the Immovable Property (Transfer and Mortgage) Law were deemed unconstitutional as contrary to Articles 23 and 26 of the Constitution, making it impossible to protect those buyers who were characterized as “enclaved buyers” before the date of entry into force of the aforementioned law,

AND WHEREAS, Article 23 of the Constitution provides for the possibility of regulating the ownership rights over the immovable property of a person with legislative regulations that are in accordance with the principle of proportionality and for the protection of the rights of bona fide parties,

AND WHEREAS, there continues to be a need to balance the constitutional rights of all parties involved in a sales contract, namely both of the bona fide buyer as well as of the seller and the mortgage lender, in a manner that does not annihilate the core constitutional rights of both parties, AND WHEREAS, the state recognizes the existence of this major social problem, as well as the pressing social need to resolve it in the most just manner under the circumstances.”

Find out the online version of theIMMOVABLE PROPERTY LAWS – A SELECTION which contains all the latest consolidated amendments in English to the most important Immovable Property legislation in Cyprus.

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