A prime piece of sea front land and property just outside Protaras, its stunningly beautiful, is owned by a Lebanese family, the father owed it before them, its been in the family for decades. He has been offered silly amounts to sell, but he would never do so, some care little for money. And they only holiday in it infrequently themselves, they do let it to other Lebanese in between times.
Iranians are quite settled in the likes of Nicosia and have many successful companies, so too in Limassol and Larnaca, I know privately of Iranians that bought land here and built on it the couple we helped last year don,t live in it they just own it, many Iranians in business have got Cypriot citizenship, these guys don,t skimp a living here either. And now we have a prime piece of real estate in Nicosia being developed by Qataris.
Much of the same has happened in London with prime real estate, imo govts that welcome this influx of business savvy and money from whichever quarter of the world it comes are the ones that prosper. Of course controlling the influx is the problem, racism is just an ugly ignorant part of that, and really only begins to worry the local population when a recession hits and too many changes to traditions are allowed. Again this has happened in the UK, although that really involves in part the benefits system, in Cyprus there is no safety net for those without means to survive, imo this brings only those with the knowledge and cashflow to start again, there are many obstacles but actually its very easy in Cyprus to overcome these, just time is needed. Imo, and those that argue with me on the stinking property issues may be surprised, but I think Cyprus has it right on who and how they allow foreigners to do business and settle here, and contrary to popular and local beliefs many can and do so. I,m as surprised as Gasman that some of you are not aware of this fact.
The influx of foreign money in business and in property sales in Cyprus is not something the present govt will ignore if they have any sense. So far they welcome it, we foreigners are good for the economy and spend millions and millions every year Not me personally of course