Cyprus Property Transfer Fees & VAT Calculator

Transfer fees are charged by the Department of Lands and Surveys when title passes into your name, on a rising scale:

• 3 per cent on the first €85,000, which is €2,550
• 5 per cent from €85,001 to €170,000, a further €4,250
• 8 per cent on everything above €170,000

Where the purchase is not subject to VAT, the fees on that scale are reduced by 50 per cent. Where the purchase is subject to VAT, no transfer fees are payable at all.

Buying in joint names changes the arithmetic. Fees are calculated on each share rather than on the property as a whole, so two buyers taking a half share each are assessed on half the value each, and each runs through the lower bands separately. On a purchase above €170,000 that is a real difference rather than a rounding one, which the calculator shows.

The value is the Land Registry's, not yours. The fees are assessed on the value the Land Registry attributes to the property at the date of transfer, which may not be the figure in your contract. A price materially below what the Registry considers the property to be worth does not reduce the fee.

A resale property does not carry VAT. That is why transfer fees exist on it, and why the 50 per cent reduction matters.

A new property carries VAT at the standard rate of 19 per cent, unless the buyer qualifies for the reduced rate on a primary and permanent residence.

The reduced rate of 5 per cent

The reduced rate applies to the first 130 square metres of buildable area, provided that its value does not exceed €350,000. Beyond that the position is proportional:

• where the value is up to €350,000, the reduced rate is applied proportionally to the square metres of buildable area when it is over 130 and up to 190
• where the value is between €350,001 and €475,000, the reduced rate is applied to the value up to €350,000, proportionate to the square metres over 130 and up to 190

The reduced rate does not apply at all where the total buildable area exceeds 190 square metres, or the total value of the residence exceeds €475,000. The standard rate then applies to the whole.

Different limits apply to a person with a disability, for whom the reduced rate applies to the first 190 square metres irrespective of total area, and to large families with at least four children, where the area is increased by 15 square metres for each additional child beyond three, without affecting the value thresholds. Transitional provisions also exist for developments whose planning applications predate 31 October 2023. None of these is modelled by the calculator.

The reduced rate carries a ten year commitment. A beneficiary who stops using the residence as their primary and permanent home within ten years must notify the Tax Department within thirty days and pay the difference between the reduced and standard rate for the unexpired period.

It calculates. It does not advise, and there are four points at which a real purchase departs from the arithmetic.

The Land Registry's valuation. Transfer fees follow the Registry's value, not the contract price. Where the two differ the fee follows the Registry.

Eligibility for the reduced rate. The 5 per cent rate requires a responsible declaration to the Tax Department and turns on conditions about the buyer and the property that no calculator can test.

What is actually being sold. Where a purchase is by assignment of contractual rights rather than by transfer of a registered title, the charging points and their timing are different. That situation is set out under title deed problems and buying at auction.

Everything else in the transaction. Legal fees, the Council of Ministers permit where the buyer is not an EU national, mortgage costs and the searches that belong before signature are separate. The sequence is set out under Property Due Diligence.

The transfer fee scale and the arithmetic in the calculator follow the Department of Lands and Surveys transfer fees calculator, including its note that fees are computed on whole shares, so a share is entered at the share's own value.

The reduced VAT rate mechanics follow VAT Circular 11/2023 of the Tax Commissioner, issued on 28 November 2023, which sets out the application of the 5 per cent rate on a primary and permanent residence, the proportional treatment between 130 and 190 square metres, the outer limits of 190 square metres and €475,000, and the ten year obligation.

The rule that no transfer fees are payable where VAT applies, and that fees are reduced by 50 per cent where the purchase is not subject to VAT, is stated in those terms in the published technical summaries of Cyprus property taxation.

Rates and thresholds change. The figures were checked on 18 August 2026 and are not updated automatically.