The announcement of the Housing Plans for the revitalization of mountainous, border, and disadvantaged areas, as well as specific rural areas for 2024, is eagerly awaited by several couples who want to benefit from state sponsorship.

The announcement of the Housing Plans will take place within May, as they will be submitted to the Ministerial Council for approval in the coming days.

However, the plans for 2024 will bring about 3 major changes, as some gaps have been identified from the implementation of the plan in previous years, which will be modified to make more people eligible.

Specifically, the changes concern:

1. Change in the Construction Stage to be Eligible

In previous plans, someone was eligible if the building was only at the skeleton stage. However, there is a proposal to revise the criterion for the construction stage, and thus, with the changes, eligible individuals will be those who have not been connected to the EAC network until the date of the Plan's announcement.

2. The Plan will remain open for 2 years

Until now, the Plan ended at the end of the year it was presented. Now, the decision is for the Plan to remain open for a period of 2 years. That is, the new plan, when announced, will remain open until the end of 2025.

The reason for this change is the time required to issue a building permit, as many interested parties did not have the time from the day of the announcement of the Plan until its expiration to secure the building permit in order to become eligible.

3. Permanent Residency

Another point being revised is the criterion concerning continuous residence in Cyprus for the last 5 years preceding the date of application for inclusion in the plan.

As it was found, several Cypriot students studying abroad for undergraduate or other studies were not included in the eligible recipients, as they did not have continuous residence in Cyprus for the last 5 years before submitting the application. Now, this point is being revised, and thus Cypriot students studying abroad will be considered not to have lost their permanent residency in Cyprus.

It should be noted that for the Housing Plans, from 7/2019 when they were first implemented until 2023, a total amount of €50 million was approved for 1,500 households.