Data as at: Q1 2026 price index, July 2026 sales.
Headline
The Residential Property Price Index rose 7.5% year on year in Q1 2026 (Central Bank of Cyprus).
That headline conceals a wide split. Apartments rose 10.8%. Houses rose 3.0%. The market is not moving as one asset class, and using the headline figure to reason about a house is a mistake.
Transaction volumes are up alongside prices. Sales contracts deposited nationally in January to July 2026 reached 12,047, against 10,561 in the same period a year earlier — a 14% increase (Department of Lands and Surveys). Rising prices on rising volumes is a different signal from rising prices on thin volumes.
Apartments versus houses
The gap between +10.8% and +3.0% is the most important number on this page.
Apartments are where new supply, foreign demand and investment buying concentrate. They are more standardised, more liquid, and more responsive to capital inflows and to lending conditions. Houses trade in a slower, more owner-occupied market with fewer directly comparable units, and price movement there is correspondingly damped.
The longer run makes the same point. Since the 2010 index base, apartment prices are up 27% island-wide and 53% in Limassol.
Prices by district
Residential price index, Q1 2026, year on year:
| District | Houses | Apartments |
|---|---|---|
| Limassol | +2.4% | +10.7% |
| Nicosia | +1.8% | +3.0% |
| Larnaca | +5.1% | +11.7% |
| Paphos | +5.2% | +6.4% |
| Famagusta | −0.7% | +1.3% |
| Cyprus | +3.0% | +10.8% |
Source: Central Bank of Cyprus.
Larnaca posted the strongest apartment growth at 11.7%, marginally ahead of Limassol. Famagusta is the outlier, with house prices down 0.7% and apartments barely moving.
Transaction volumes by district
Sales contracts deposited, January to July 2026:
| District | Contracts | Change y/y |
|---|---|---|
| Limassol | 3,959 | +20% |
| Larnaca | 2,599 | +11% |
| Nicosia | 2,564 | +5% |
| Paphos | 2,387 | +20% |
| Famagusta | 538 | +10% |
| Cyprus | 12,047 | +14% |
Source: Department of Lands and Surveys. National figure compares with 10,561 in January to July 2025.
Limassol and Paphos both grew volumes 20%. Nicosia, at +5%, is the slowest of the mainland districts on volume, which matches its slow price growth on both houses and apartments.
Limassol in more depth
Limassol is the largest market by volume, at 3,959 contracts in the first seven months of 2026 — roughly a third of all Cyprus transactions — and it grew fastest, at 20%.
Its price behaviour is the sharpest illustration of the apartment-house split anywhere on the island. Limassol apartments rose 10.7% year on year in Q1 2026. Limassol houses rose 2.4%, below the national house figure of 3.0%.
The cumulative gap is larger still. Apartments in Limassol are 53% above the 2010 index base, against 27% island-wide. A generation of tower and mid-rise development, sustained international demand and the concentration of corporate relocation in the city have all bid the apartment segment up, while the house market has moved at closer to a domestic pace.
The practical consequence: in Limassol more than anywhere else, an index-based estimate applied to the wrong segment will be wrong by a wide margin.
What it means for owners
Rising indices are not your valuation. An index measures the average movement of a segment. It says nothing about your unit's condition, floor, aspect, layout, parking, block, or planning position — the things that decide the price a specific buyer pays.
Two further points. The Land Registry General Valuation is anchored to a base date of 1 January 2021 and has not tracked any of this movement; it is not a market figure and cannot be used for sales, investment or borrowing. And if you are selling, remember that capital gains tax is measured from 1 January 1980, so a strong headline gain and a strong taxable gain are not the same computation.
What it means for buyers
Volumes up 14% nationally means more competition, not more choice. Apartment buyers in Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos are buying into segments that have run hard. Houses, and the Famagusta and Nicosia markets, have moved far less.
Segment and district selection matter more in this market than timing. An independent valuation before exchange tells you whether the specific asking price is supported by evidence, which the index cannot.
What it means for lenders
Security taken on apartments in Limassol and Larnaca is sitting on double-digit annual growth. That supports current loan-to-value ratios and also raises the question of what the position looks like if the rate of increase slows. House-secured lending has grown far more modestly.
About this page
CPA updates this page each quarter as the Central Bank of Cyprus publishes the Residential Property Price Index and the Department of Lands and Surveys publishes sales contract figures. Price index figures are attributed to the Central Bank of Cyprus. Sales figures are attributed to the Department of Lands and Surveys.
Index figures describe segments. They are not a valuation of any individual property, and should not be used as one.
Discuss what this means for your property — info@cypruspropertyappraisals.com · +357 25254222 · mobile +357 96569477
Last reviewed: August 2026.
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