Renting out a Cyprus property on a long let

A long let is a contract plus a tax position. Cyprus does not impose one official lease for every flat. What the statute does impose is income tax on the rent, a contribution to the general health system, and, for a narrow class of older premises, a rent-control regime that limits how and when a landlord can recover possession. Getting those three things in the wrong order is how a simple letting becomes a dispute.

The tenancy agreement

Write the let down. Name the landlord and the tenant, the property, the term, the rent, the day it is paid, and what happens if it is not. Say who repairs the structure and who repairs the interior. Say whether the tenant may sublet. Record the inventory if the flat is furnished. A security deposit is a matter of contract. This site does not state a maximum number of months, because no single statutory cap of that kind is set out on the official pages used here. Whatever you take, say when it is returned and what can be deducted.

A lease of more than a short term can be registered at the Department of Lands and Surveys in some cases. Registration is not the same step as depositing a contract of sale. Do not use the sale-deposit form for a tenancy. If the term is long enough that registration is worth doing, ask the District Lands Office which form and which fee apply to that term. Inventing a fee here would be worse than sending you to the counter.

Take a copy of the tenant’s identity, keep the incoming payments in an account you can explain, and issue a receipt. If you are non-resident, the tenant’s ability to withhold tax can become relevant under the older defence-contribution rules. For 2026, Special Defence Contribution on rent has been abolished, so the old withholding of that contribution should not be demanded on 2026 rent. Confirm the current Tax Department instruction before a tenant withholds anything, because a practice can lag the statute.

Income tax and the 20 per cent

Gross rent goes into the landlord’s income tax. The Income Tax Law, as restated in PwC’s Tax Facts & Figures 2026, allows a deduction of 20 per cent of the gross rent. Interest on a loan taken to buy the building, and capital allowances for wear and tear where they are not already used up, can be deducted as well. The 20 per cent is not a second wear-and-tear claim. If you have exhausted the capital allowances, do not also invent a new pool.

From 1 January 2026 the bands are nil on the first €22,000 of taxable income, then 20, 25, 30 and 35 per cent at €32,000, €42,000, €72,000 and above. Rent is stacked on whatever other taxable income you have. A person with no other income and €12,000 of gross rent has a statutory deduction of €2,400 and taxable rent of €9,600, which is inside the nil band. The same rent, added to a €40,000 salary, is not. The rental calculator does that stacking. It does not create a loss to set against the salary if your “extra costs” box is larger than the rent. Loss relief has conditions and is not in the calculator.

GHS, and the defence contribution that stopped

The Tax Department’s page on rental income says GHS is 2.65 per cent of gross rental income where the owner is an individual. A company owner is outside that particular charge on the same page. An annual ceiling exists in the GHS system. This site does not print a 2026 ceiling figure, because the figure should come from the current GHS tables rather than from memory. The calculator applies 2.65 per cent with no ceiling and says so.

Special Defence Contribution on rent, which until 2025 was 3 per cent of 75 per cent of the gross rent for a resident who was also domiciled, is not charged for the 2026 tax year. The Tax Department’s residency page says the rental charge was abolished after 2025. Non-dom status is no longer what saves the rent from that contribution. Income tax and GHS remain.

Short stays let through a platform can be treated as business income rather than rent, on conditions in a Tax Department circular of 13 September 2023. Business income does not get the 20 per cent rent deduction in the same way, and it may require VAT registration if the threshold is crossed. This page is about a long let. Do not apply the long-let computation to a holiday let without reading that circular.

Rent control

The Rent Control Law of 1983, Law 23/1983, protects tenants of premises in controlled areas where the statutory conditions on the building are met. The condition that matters in practice is that the premises were completed, and in the classic formulation first let, by the end of 1999. A flat completed later, or first let later, is generally outside the Rent Control Court. A tenancy that is outside the law ends when the contract says it ends, and the rent is the rent in the contract, not a “fair rent” fixed by that court.

The law is technical, the controlled areas are listed rather than obvious, and commentary disagrees at the edges, including on how far the regime reaches a tenant who is not a Cypriot. This page will not give a yes or no for a particular building. Before you promise a tenant an easy eviction, or before you accept a low rent because you think the court will raise it, ask someone to check the completion date, the area, and the parties against the statute. For a new apartment bought off-plan after 1999, the ordinary answer is that rent control does not apply. “Ordinary” is not “checked”.

The building and the neighbours

Common expenses are usually a matter of the building’s management committee and the sale contract you signed as owner. A tenant does not become the owner. If you agree that the tenant will pay the committee, you are still the person the committee can pursue if the regulations say the owner pays. Make the lease match the regulations. Unpaid common expenses are also something a buyer of your flat will ask about, so keep the receipts.

Insurance of the building may be arranged by the committee. Insurance of the contents, and third-party cover for the let, is yours to arrange. Neither is a tax, and neither has an official premium.