A total of 219,635 residential units in 20,919 co-owned buildings across Cyprus are affected by legislation advanced in August 2023 under the title “Co-owned Buildings Management and Related Matters Law of 2023”, according to data from the Land Registry Department to be presented to the Parliamentary Interior Committee today.
The island has 14,208 registered co-owned buildings representing 159,659 residential units, mainly apartments, and 6,711 unregistered co-owned buildings representing 59,976 units, according to the Land Registry figures.
Nicosia holds the largest number of registered co-owned buildings at 4,927, representing 53,553 units, whilst Larnaca has the fewest at 898, representing 9,895 units.
For unregistered co-owned buildings, Nicosia also leads with 2,297 buildings representing 19,688 units, whilst Larnaca has 758 unregistered buildings representing 6,865 units.
In total, Nicosia has 7,224 co-owned buildings representing 73,241 units, whilst Famagusta has 1,832 co-owned buildings representing 19,266 units.
The numbers are critical for District Local Government Organisations (DLGOs) as they assess whether assuming management of co-owned buildings would cause losses, given the need to hire additional staff to carry out the work, according to the Land Registry.
At the last Interior Committee session where the bill is being discussed, Nicosia DLGO President Constantinos Yiorkadjis, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said the Interior Ministry didn’t consult with DLGOs before assigning them responsibility for managing co-owned buildings.
Meetings were subsequently held with relevant Interior Ministry departments and DLGO presidents, with the latter requesting a feasibility study on DLGOs assuming the competency and operating a Registration and Supervision Service for Co-owned Building Management Committees, according to the Land Registry.
The department prepared the study, which includes calculations of required staff per district and cost estimates of employee salaries against reciprocal fees to determine whether fees are sufficient for service operation. The study also calculated fees based on the proposal to calculate them by number of residential units.
The Land Registry recommends basing registration and management committee appointment charges on the number of units in each development.
Under the proposed legislation, DLGO assume the Registration and Supervision Service for Co-owned Building Management Committees. Buildings with five or more units are considered co-owned, with the vast majority being apartments, though some are organised housing complexes.
The DLGOs set out their positions in a letter sent to the Interior Minister and copied to the Interior Committee, which lists the following responsibilities DLGOs would assume for establishing and operating management committees for all co-owned buildings: registration of management committees and maintaining a register, supervising management committee operations, resolving personal disputes between co-owners, and imposing administrative fines on management committees and/or owners.
The original bill proposed establishing a Registration Council to handle co-owned building management issues, which the Interior Ministry rejected, deciding instead to transfer the competency to local authorities.
Municipalities reacted strongly to assuming this responsibility, leading to consultations with the Union of Municipalities.
“We understand you had proceeded with consultations with the Union of Municipalities. The Temporary Coordinating Councils responsible for preparing the District Organisations could have been informed and this didn’t happen,” the DLGOs stated in their letter to the Interior Ministry.
With the local government reform and transfer of licensing competencies to DLGOs , the Interior Ministry decided to transfer co-owned building management competency to DLGOs .
DLGOs didn’t participate in drafting the bill or in the public consultation, as it was already prepared before their creation. DLGOs were first called to Parliament to discuss the matter on 25 November 2024. When the bill was discussed at the Interior Committee session on 25 September 2025, no DLGOs attended.
Yiorkadjis considers registration and supervision of management committee operations unrelated to DLGO competencies and therefore should not be transferred to them.
Carrying out the work requires creating a new service within DLGOs staffed by large numbers of people given the very large number of co-owned buildings in the capital, who must have experience in the subject, which isn’t provided for in DLGO structure.
Fees provided in the bill are minimal and disproportionate to operational and other costs DLGOs would bear for establishing the new service, and it must be considered that they are self-financing organisations.
For these and other reasons, DLGOs declare themselves unready to assume the specific service.
During the last Interior Committee session, DLGOs requested an extension for consultation. They also indicated it makes no sense to request assuming competencies without a feasibility study on fee reciprocity, structure, office housing, software with specific workflow, and preparation for assuming duties, stressing that DLGOs cannot meet the requirements of this management as they stand today.
Today’s session will reveal whether DLGOs and the Interior Ministry have reached agreement to advance the bill approval process.