5 December 2008
Property firms from Northern Cyprus have been rejected from exhibiting at a host of exhibitions in Scandinavia following a series of complaints from Southern Cypriot property developers and agents, reports Overseas Property Professional.
Event organiser Fair Media, which holds exhibitions throughout Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland, said that the decision was made strictly on commercial grounds amid fears that Southern Cypriot developers would withdraw from its shows.
“At a previous show in Norway, we had sold stand space to someone with a Turkish billing address and assumed that this was a Turkish developer coming to the show,” said Sven Kallstrom, chairman of Fair Media. “It was in fact a Northern Cypriot company and halfway through the show, a collective group of representatives from Pafilia, Aristo, Leptos and other Southern Cypriot developers came over and asked us to remove the company from the exhibition. For me it was fine to have them there, and I hadn’t 100% decided on a policy for this situation, but they threatened to boycott any future events. I am losing money on ignoring Northern Cypriot companies now, and we are getting a lot more enquiries, but I would lose even more money if I allowed them in so we have made our decision.”
Russell Price, managing director of Northern Cypriot agency Property International, said he understands the decision, but thinks it shouldn’t be a case of one size fits all.
“At the end of the day, the exhibition company has made a commercial decision and I respect that,” he said. “I don’t necessarily disagree with companies that sell a range of title in the North of Cyprus, however, we only sell pre-1974 title so this isn’t fair on companies such as ours that wish to legitimately sell property in the North to international buyers.”
Editorial comment:
This acts as a timely reminder that buying property in North Cyprus remains a highly sensitive issue to Southern Cypriots, and could prove complicated.
Browse other Cyprus property news stories, read articles about investing and buying property in Cyprus or view our range of property in Cyprus.
Related News
