Cyprus Amends Citizenship By Investment Programme

Amendments to the Cyprus citizenship by investment programme in September 2016 have amplified its appeal, leading to increased interest from foreign nationals.

The changes include:

• The investment amount has been reduced from €5 million to €2 million plus VAT, provided the investment is in one or more residential immovable properties, one of which is at least €500,000 plus VAT in value. For all other investments the amount is €2 million plus a residential property of at least €500,000 plus VAT.
• It is no longer necessary to be grouped in a collective investment application with other applicants making it now possible to proceed individually on the basis of the thresholds in the first bullet point above. The previous requirement for collective investment applications of at least €12.5 million led to delays until a group of 5 or more applicants (which had invested at least €2.5 million) were grouped together in order for a collective investment application to be