Cyprus Amends Citizenship By Investment Program

Amendments to the Cyprus citizenship by investment program in September 2016 have amplified the appeal of the already investor friendly Cypriot citizenship program, leading to an increased interest from foreign nationals.

The changes include:

• The investment amount has been reduced from €2.5 million to €2 million plus VAT, provided the investment is a residential immovable property or a number of residential immovable properties (one of which is at least €500,000 plus VAT). 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