Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

Did you see any of this when you were in the RoC.





Rushing to get out of a failing business
By Jean Christou

IT’S IRONIC that 20 years ago people were rushing to build residential apartments and in many cases converting them illegally into cheap tourist units.

Now, the trend has reversed and hotel units are being bought up cheaply and in many cases being illegally converted into expensive residential apartments.

And just like the scenario of unlicensed apartments in the late eighties and early nineties, when Parliament, presented with a fait accompli, gave in to pressure to license hundreds at a time, the current phenomenon is just as uncontrolled.

The Technical Chamber ETEK has blasted the development, having visited a couple of areas during the week and easily spotting around 24 units in the process of conversion.

ETEK’s Linos Chrysostomou said there were probably many more, and no one was doing anything about it.

“What we are saying is that we seem unable to enforce the law,” he said.

“Local authorities involved should make sure all the hotels that changed have permission.”

Chrysostomou blamed the CTO, which announced a scheme in co-operation with the Town Planning Department to give incentives to hoteliers who wanted to leave the business and change the use of their units.

But the scheme has still not been approved and while it envisaged the withdrawal of 10,000 beds, 5,000 will already be gone before the incentives even become available.

Meanwhile, the property sharks have moved in with tempting offers, and with falling tourism, many hoteliers see it as the only way out of their difficulties.

“I believe the CTO has given the impression these hotels could be transformed into apartments, saying it will help the environment,” said Chrysostomou.

“I don’t believe they can prove this. The owners think that because they might get their bed withdrawal licence in a year it means they can do something illegal now.”

But there is not a lot the CTO can do. The incentives are stuck at government level and the CTO can’t refuse an owner to withdraw his beds from the market.

“If someone chooses to exit without incentives it is entirely his own decision,” said CTO Director of Tourism Lefkos Phylactides.

Phylactides said that over the past nine months, a special tourism committee that meets four or five times a year had had several such requests at each meeting.

He said most of the beds were being withdrawn in the Famagusta district, including Ayia Napa and Protaras, which have “fallen from grace”.

“We are losing lower accommodation primarily. These are establishments constructed in the boom years of the 80s, mostly apartments. Many of them were built as residential blocks of apartments in the early 80s. They were operated mainly in Ayia Napa for the youth market and the club market.

That market now is gone,” he said.

While the CTO is pleased on some level, Phylactides said they would have preferred to see it done under a controlled incentive scheme rather than being left to ruthless market forces.

Hoteliers’ associations PASYXE and STEK are also concerned at how it will turn out, as many of the new luxury beach apartments may end up on the emerging second-homes market and be rented out for holidays without controls or licences. There is already a booming second-homes market with owners renting out villas to relatives and friends.

“If we don’t do things in a programmed and planned manner then the market forces, which are vicious, will force this change in a negative way,” said STEK’s General Manager Phidias Karis.

“That’s why we were in favour of implementing the changes as soon as possible for the withdrawal of the beds. The scheme is there. Unfortunately this didn’t happen yet.”

Veteran tourism industry boss George Michaelides believes the second-home market will ruin tourism all over again.

He said there must be around 15,000 such villas in Paphos; “Ugly little dominions built for profit,” he said.

“It all reminds me of the unlicensed hotel apartments we used to have that we were forced to approve, and now we want to get rid of them,” he said.
Michaelides said what was emerging was a culture of “Manchester United and pubs”, creating an entirely new and unwelcome situation.

“We are creating a new form of mass market tourism. We are getting rid of the old cheap apartments but at the same time we are encouraging and allowing the development of a mass product that is ugly. We are just replacing one kind of ugliness for another by allowing these developers to make quick and easy money.

“We are not upgrading our product. We are going nowhere and in the end of the say we will be back at square one.”

PASYXE chairman Haris Loizides said the unregulated second-home market was working against the licensed industry that has to deal with high taxes, VAT and local authority charges.

“It’s a time that either you have to be a really big hotel or if it’s small it has to be a city centre hotel or a boutique hotel. Otherwise it’s very hard. The traditional two or three star is not surviving,” he said.

But not everyone was sympathetic to the plight of those hoteliers being forced out of the market.

The Sunday Mail was unable to track down a hotelier who had packed it in that was willing to talk, but another veteran of the hotel industry, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed an alternative view on why so many were selling up.

“They made a bad investment. They all tried to get on the bandwagon and offered a cheap product and reduced everyone else’s prices. They tried to cash in on the boom and in this country there was no one to stop them, so every Tom Dick and Harry became a hotelier,” he said.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

[zan]

I think Bir should take note of what they are doing to his home town............illegally.

[zan]

Still no one here to confirm or deny this. Maybe just a case of paradise lost eh!

[Jerry]

Zan I was in Ayia Napa last week, the hotel I stayed in was packed with Russians. Bearing in mind it was April I was quite surprised at the number of tourists about. I plan to buy property in Larnaca for holidays and instead of going to Cyprus for one or two weeks a year (as a tourist) I will go for a month or two as a resident. Some of my friends and family (who would have otherwise visited other countries) will also go to Cyprus and use the apartment so in my mind in the long run this shift from tourists to visitors staying in apartments/villas is not a bad thing. Some of the developments are not very attractive but unlike the north they do seem to sell well , most of the apartments in the development I hope to buy in have been sold and it won't be ready for 18 months.

[BirKibrisli]

I think Bir should take note of what they are doing to his home town............illegally.

I am taking note ,Zan...When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight... ...Legally!!!

[Jerry]

I think Bir should take note of what they are doing to his home town............illegally.

I am taking note ,Zan...When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight... ...Legally!!!

Will you give a discount for users of this site

[T_C]

When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight...legally

hmmmmmmm....this explains A LOT about BK's views

[zan]

I think Bir should take note of what they are doing to his home town............illegally.

I am taking note ,Zan...When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight... ...Legally!!!

Sorry! Why have you not got your mothers land. Is it not in the so called free area.

[BirKibrisli]

I think Bir should take note of what they are doing to his home town............illegally.

I am taking note ,Zan...When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight... ...Legally!!!

Will you give a discount for users of this site

You bet...I will also have one apartment set aside for exclusive use of CF members for free...Bit like time-share,but without all the hassles...

[BirKibrisli]

When I get my mother's land back (22 donums) I will subdivide it into 22 one-donum lots and built similar highrise apartments,and get rich overnight...legally

hmmmmmmm....this explains A LOT about BK's views

I've said it before and will say it again...I am against TC refugees getting their land back before the GC refugees gets theirs...Strictly private viewpoint.Not meant to judge anyone else who might want to...