Paphos Life

Our friends are looking to purchase a house in Cyprus and some agents quote prices in sterling as well as in euros. If the seller has returned to England and our friends have their funds in England is there any legal way that the funds can be transferred from bank to bank in England, rather than transferring the funds to the bank in Cyprus through a currency transrer company who would convert the sterling into euros then deposit them. The reverse would then have to be done by the seller which would incur unnecessary costs to both purchaser and seller.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Peatsie.

I would normally expect funds to pass through a solicitors client account. Therefore your friends need to find a Cypriot lawyer with access to a sterling client account. Could get messy as you won't be able to avoid some of the completion costs being levied in Euros. FYI we used Zambartas for our conveyance and thought they did a good job

A certain percentage of purchase price can be paid in sterling but the remainder must be paid in Euros it’s to do with the tax element ......... that was a few years back. I would recommend taking to an independent English speaking Solicitor
Ruth Hatfield is a very good local Cypriot Solicitor, she would advise

We sold our house this year, it was priced in euros and the contract apparently legally has to be in euros, both we and our buyers were happy to do the sale in sterling, at the time we accepted their offer an exchange rate was agreed, when both sides lawyers were happy that all the legal matters were done and correct, they transferred the sterling from their UK account to our UK account and the deal was done, this way we both had certainty of how much was being paid and no hassles with transfer fees etc, for us it was stress free.
Regards
Barry

We bought our house, sterling to sterling but some of the payments, lawyers fees, deposit, were in Euro.

We bought our house, sterling to sterling but some of the payments, lawyers fees, deposit, were in Euro.

Would add to my post above that a holding deposit was paid in euros to our agent and further to our lawyer, from these funds our Cyprus commitments ie lawyer, agent, taxes etc was paid and the balance then paid to our UK bank in Sterling, as a point of interest I did email at least 6 lawyers regarding their fees, the difference was astounding, whilst it is imperative you have a good reliable lawyer do investigate costs, we paid less than half of the most expensive and he was very efficient and charged us exactly as quoted and he was Cypriot, Haris Kalogirou.
Regards
Barry

We too used Haris Kalogirou who was most helpful and reasonably priced.


We paid all fees and the initial deposit in euros but as we purchased from expats moving back to the UK paid the rest by bank transfer in sterling to avoid double exchange rate issues. Just make sure to agree the exchange rate up front and check your UK bank will make the transfer etc. okay

Recommend Haris too.

Thank you everyone for the information. I will pass this all on to my friends.
Peatsie