Cyprus parliament passes law regulating state land disposal

On Thursday, the plenary session of the Cypriot Parliament passed a bill submitted by AKEL MP Christos Christofides, with 24 votes in favor and 15 against. The legislation amends the Immovable Property Law to introduce strict regulations for the disposal of state-owned land valued over 500,000 euros. For commercial, tourism, or industrial purposes, the law mandates an open competitive tender process where the highest bidder is selected after the Cabinet sets permitted uses and minimum rent. A specific provision for renewable energy projects requires a reverse auction process, where contracts are awarded to entities offering the lowest price per kilowatt-hour to consumers. The author of the bill stated that the reform aims to replace opaque practices with transparent, objective, and merit-based criteria. Critics of previous practices, including Christofides, argued that past land disposals often favored private interests over public benefit, including failures to allocate land to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. The government had previously promised to submit regulations to address these issues but had not done so, prompting this legislative intervention. Small plots of land are exempted from the new requirements to allow for practical adjustments like parking space extensions or neighbor integration.