The government will have another try at solving the problem of the title deeds, said Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides. He did, however, acknowledge that this is a very complicated legal issue which requires in-depth study. The government has prepared a new bill that it forwarded to the state legal service for scrutiny and is awaiting its study to be completed before it is sent on to the council of ministers for approval.

The law, approved by the House in 2015, which gave the head of the land and surveys department the power to exempt, eliminate, transfer and cancel mortgages under certain conditions, did not have the desired results. Banks won cases on the grounds that the buyer’s claim infringed on the contract between the bank and the developer, forcing the land and surveys department head to suspend procedures, pending a ruling by the supreme court. Last September though, Larnaca district court used the 2015 law to allow buyers to obtain their title deeds, disregarding the developer’s contractual obligations to the bank.

It is a big mess that will eventually be sorted out by the supreme court, which could rule the 2015 law unconstitutional. This possibility could be the reason the government has prepared a new law and the minister spoke about a very complicated legal issue. The reason it is so complicated is because it is based on unethical practices by the banks and developers that went on for decades. That the banks accepted land, on which a developer had built homes and sold to unsuspecting buyers, as security for the developer’s loans was shabby practice, even if lax laws permitted this.

The state has also contributed to the problem in its own way. For instance, title deeds cannot be issued unless a block of flats has final approval from the authorities. Why were developers allowed to sell flats in blocks that did not have final approval? With its laxness the state was penalising innocent buyers, while developers continued to engage in these dubious practices with impunity. If there was a law imposing a hefty fine on a developer failing to hand over a title deed within a month of being paid for a completed property, we would not have this problem.

There has been an unwillingness by successive governments to take a tough stance against developers because they contributed to the growth of the economy. Even the idea of the citizenship for investment scheme was primarily aimed at helping developers who owed the banks huge amounts of money and were in danger of going under. The scheme proved their salvation, but this is no consolation to trapped buyers, who are nowhere nearer obtaining title deeds for properties they paid for years ago.

In fairness, the Anastasiades government is the only government that has tried to tackle this problem through legislation. Perhaps the law being prepared now will prove more effective than that of 2015, and end this shameful situation that reflects so badly on the state.

Source: CyprusMail

The big debate between the five main presidential candidates is now being aired by all major television.

The two-hour debate,  hosted by state broadcaster CyBC, began at 9.05pm. Five journalists of CyBC, Antenna, TV-One, Sigma and Alpha will grill the candidates backed by parliamentary parties: Disy-backed President Nicos Anastasiades; Diko leader Nicolas Papadopoulos who is also supported by Edek, the Greens and the Solidarity Movement; Akel-backed independent Stavros Malas; head of the Citizens’ Alliance Giorgos Lillikas; and Elam leader Christos Christou.

The first part of the debate will focus on the Cyprus problem, foreign policy and energy issues and the second part on internal governance.

In total, the candidates will answer two questions in each round. Each answer can take up to two minutes, while candidates will have an additional minute to respond to any follow up questions.

At the end of each round, each candidate will be given two minutes to comment on his opponents’ answers.

This is the only debate set to take place before Sunday’s election.

The other four presidential hopefuls are independent candidates Andreas Efstratiou, Haris Aristidou, Christakis Kapiliotis and Michalis Mina.

If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, a run-off election will take place on February 4.

Source: CyprusMail

WHEN hundreds of television sets in Cyprus went blank, people first wondered what it was that went wrong. Perhaps they checked their innocuous device that so cheaply allowed them to view hundreds of channels they technically hadn’t paid for.

Others had already seen the news on January 9 that combined efforts between authorities in Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and the Netherlands had shut down an illegal IPTV (internet protocol television) stream and realised the game was up.

This concerns none other than the infamous set-top TV boxes ‘unlocked’ to stream subscription content at almost no cost, that have now been rendered useless.

Although initial reports outlined this was a Dreambox network that had been clamped down on, police specified that the majority of cases in Cyprus concern android boxes.

“The Dreambox is an older technology that uses satellite, whereas android boxes use internet,” deputy police spokesman Stelios Stylianou told the Sunday Mail.

Providers illegally transmitted over 1,000 cable channels such as Nova, Sky Cinema, Sky Sports and Bein Sports, to more than half a million subscribers in Europe by preloading all the channels on the device.

Prices ranged from as little as €10 to €20 per month, a far cry from Cyta’s package for instance, which offers just over 80 channels for €45 or €54 per month for personal use, depending if someone uses the telecoms internet service or not.

In Cyprus, Cyta has located around 500 persons who have been using illegal devices that will be called to provide statements to police, Stylianou said.

It is still not clear how many of these were using the boxes for personal use in their homes and how many for commercial, in cafes and bars, he added.

Those who run businesses such as pubs, cafeterias or bars who stream TV – primary football games, for their customers have to dig much deeper in their pocket to pay a legal subscription.

Cyta, for instance charges €178 per month for one set top box for commercial use. Two devices push up the cost to €275 per month and three costs €317 monthly.

In addition to this, a number of telecoms companies on the island have exclusive broadcasting rights to different football team matches, costing firms millions of euro per year, that are then passed on to consumers through subscriptions, director at Cyprus’ telecommunications regulatory authority Neophytos Papadopoulos told the Sunday Mail.

This means establishments must pay a hefty sum of money to different companies such as Cyta and Primetel if they want to showcase all local games.

Android boxes did not stream Cypriot games so were primarily used by businesses for international football such premier league.

One bar manager who spoke to the Sunday Mail on condition of anonymity said he used the device on top of his subscription for an extra TV.

“I pay €600 a month for Cytavision and Primetel because it’s for public viewing.”

This is for two Cyta set-top boxes and one for Primetel. 

“I used the android box as a spare so I could have different games on different TV screens…the companies don’t do anything about the prices [to make them more attractive],” he said.

According to Papadopoulos “it appears this creates arbitrary opportunities. Subscription fees are expensive, because of the exclusive rights fees demanded by football teams and paid by telecom companies and the small Cyprus market. If they weren’t, then most probably this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Consider for instance, the potential temptation of sports bar owners that currently pay for Cyta and Primetel subscriptions (by 2020 Cablenet will also have exclusive rights to broadcasting local football matches) hundreds of euros per month vs the possibility to drastically reduce this expense by alternative means.”

Spokesman for state owned telecom Cyta, Lefteris Christou told the Sunday Mail the company’s top priority was fighting piracy.

“We reduced prices for Cytavision a year and a half ago (from €56 per month to €45) and are constantly taking action for better prices.”

Realistically however, the huge difference in prices between legal and illegal streaming makes competition very difficult.

In the past week since the clampdown on the illegal network, Cyta has seen an increase in the number of paid subscriptions from both personal and business users, Christou said.

Installation for the devices, usually at €71, will be free for the next month, provided users sign up to a one-year contract.

Nonetheless, not everyone is too keen to turn to coughing up the sum of money for only a sliver of the channels they were used to having with their android box.

“I was so depressed when I realised what happened. Do you know how nice it was to be able to think, ‘hmm what do I feel like watching now? A French film, a series, an American film? And just pressing a button to watch it?’

“Now I’m stuck watching ‘O adinamos krikos’ (the weakest link) on the state broadcaster,” one disgruntled user said.

Despite missing his former comforts though, he has no intention of paying a subscription to any of the Cypriot telecoms companies.

“I think I’m going to sign up to Netflix. It’s €8 per month for one device and €11.99 for four devices.”

For football, he’ll just go to a café for the time being and pay a couple of euros for his Freddo Espresso.

The operation to clampdown on the illegal network has been in the works for almost a whole year in Cyprus.

In February 2017, authorities on the island received a tip from Europol, Stylianou said. Since then a series of investigations have been carried out that led to the eventual arrest of four people in Cyprus.

The illegal network was discovered by Nova Greece and later verified by Cyta as a piracy network existing in Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. Over 100 servers were seized and close to 20 raids were carried out.

Three men in Cyprus, aged 53, 49 and 44 were arrested on January 9 and a subsequent arrest of a 42-year-old in Larnaca took place on January 12.

On Thursday, Larnaca district court remanded the 53 and 49-year-olds from Limassol for a further five days while the 44-year-old from Larnaca was released.

The alleged mastermind, a 47-year-old from Greece, was also arrested in Bulgaria last week while reports say nine suspects were also reportedly arrested in the Netherlands.

One source told the Sunday Mail that they’re not too worried. “This has happened before. I’ve had three devices over the years because there would be a clampdown, screen would go black and then something else would come up on the market.”

Source: CyprusMail

Amazon.com Inc will open its checkout-free grocery store to the public on Monday after more than a year of testing, the company said, moving forward on an experiment that could dramatically alter brick-and-mortar retail.

The Seattle store, known as Amazon Go, relies on cameras and sensors to track what shoppers remove from the shelves, and what they put back. Cash registers and checkout lines become superfluous – customers are billed after leaving the store using credit cards on file.

For grocers, the store’s opening heralds another potential disruption at the hands of the world’s largest online retailer, which bought high-end supermarket chain Whole Foods Market last year for $13.7 billion. Long lines can deter shoppers, so a company that figures out how to eradicate wait times will have an advantage.

Amazon did not discuss if or when it will add more Go locations, and reiterated it has no plans to add the technology to the larger and more complex Whole Foods stores.

The convenience-style store opened to Amazon employees on Dec. 5, 2016 in a test phase. At the time, Amazon said it expected members of the public could begin using the store in early 2017.

But there have been challenges, according to a person familiar with the matter. These included correctly identifying shoppers with similar body types, the person said. When children were brought into the store during the trial, they caused havoc by moving items to incorrect places, the person added.

Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, said in an interview that the store worked very well throughout the test phase, thanks to four years of prior legwork.

“This technology didn’t exist,” Puerini said, walking through the Seattle store. “It was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning.”

“If you look at these products, you can see they’re super similar,” she said of two near-identical Starbucks drinks next to each other on a shelf. One had light cream and the other had regular, and Amazon’s technology learned to tell them apart.

HOW IT WORKS

The 1800-square-foot (167-square-meter) store is located in an Amazon office building. To start shopping, customers must scan an Amazon Go smartphone app and pass through a gated turnstile.

Ready-to-eat lunch items greet shoppers when they enter. Deeper into the store, shoppers can find a small selection of grocery items, including meats and meal kits. An Amazon employee checks IDs in the store’s wine and beer section.

Sleek black cameras monitoring from above and weight sensors in the shelves help Amazon determine exactly what people take.

If someone passes back through the gates with an item, his or her associated account is charged. If a shopper puts an item back on the shelf, Amazon removes it from his or her virtual cart.

Much of the store will feel familiar to shoppers, aside from the check-out process. Amazon, famous for dynamic pricing online, has printed price tags just as traditional brick-and-mortar stores do.

Source: CyprusMail

Some internet users in Cyprus were faced with slower internet on Friday after two underground cables were cut a day earlier.

Providers were quick to move towards fixing the problem when the Alexander and Hawk cable systems were cut.

“This is a severe problem and affects the connection between Cyprus and abroad,” Cablenet said in a statement.

This affected internet connection speed but efforts were being taken to restore the issue by the day’s end, Cablenet added.

A spokesperson said there was nothing malicious about the developments and such things can happen.

Spokesman for Cyta, Lefteris Christou confirmed there was a problem with the Alexandros cable system but Cyta was using alternative routes.

“To Cyta, reliability is of utmost importance and all important networks have alternative routes. Therefore our customers have not been affected.”

Primetel echoed Cyta, saying there was a problem they were working on resolving but customers had not been affected as they were using alternative routes.

MTN was not immediately available for comment.

The number of applications for the registration of new companies in Cyprus increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2017, according to the Department of the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver.

Specifically, applications rose by 0.93% in 2017, reaching 13,743 compared to 13,616 in 2016. In 2015, the number of applications reached 11,306, in 2014 they were 11,253 and in 2013 they were 10,927.
 
Despite the increases over the past four years, the number of applications remains at one of the lowest levels recorded before the financial crisis of 2013, as in 2012 they were 18,000 and in 2011 they were 19,000.
 
The total of registered companies reached the highest level of a single year in 2017, at 217,893, compared to 208,493 in 2016, recording an increase of 4.51%.
 
Furthermore, new registrations for the whole year reached 13,672, which is the highest number since 2013.
 
The registration of foreign companies reached 87 in 2017, which is also the highest number since 2013.
 
In 2017, the number of companies and persons filing for bankruptcy was 92 and 37, respectively.
 
Furthermore, voluntary liquidations reached 2,497 in 2017, recording a historic high. Up until 2011, voluntary liquidations remained under a thousand.

Source: Stockwatch

If regulatory concerns aren’t enough to explain Bitcoin’s 50 percent slump from its record high reached last month, how about blaming it on the moon? The Lunar New Year, which marks the first day of the year in the Chinese calendar, is being cited by some as contributing to Bitcoin’s slump as Asian traders cash out their cryptocurrencies to travel and buy gifts for the holiday that starts Feb. 16 this year.

The festivity is celebrated not just in China, but in other Asian countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and Thailand "The January drop is a recurring theme in cryptocurrencies as people celebrating the Chinese New Year, aka Lunar New Year, exchange their crypto for fiat currency," said Alexander Wallin, chief executive officer of trading social network SprinkleBit in New York. "The timing is about four to six weeks before the lunar year, when most people make their travel arrangements and start buying presents. Bitcoin had a similar decline at the beginning of 2017, when it slumped from a high of $1,162 to a low of $752 in January, similar to what happened in the first month of the prior year. In 2017, the total cryptocurrency market peaked on Jan. 5 at $22 billion, only to bottom out a week later at about $14 billion, Joe DiPasquale, who manages cryptocurrency fund of funds BitBull Capital, wrote in a report.

The rebound back to the previous peak concluded in mid-February of 2017. While Chinese yuan and Korean won used to account for most Bitcoin trading volume, regulatory crackdowns in those nations have reduced their significance -- and trading in U.S. dollars and Japanese yen now account for well over half of the volume. But that’s little comfort to Bitcoin investors who have seen prices tumble this year after the cryptocurrency surged 1,400 percent last year.

So much for Bitcoin shooting to the moon. 

Source:Bloomberg

The government is trying to expedite a bill hoping to resolve the “very important” title deeds issue, Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said on Tuesday as he cautioned that it was a complex legal issue that had to be examined thoroughly.

Petrides was responding to a written question by Akel MP Giorgos Loucaides regarding the government’s intentions on the matter.

In a bid to sort out the so-called trapped property buyers mess, parliament in 2015 passed a government bill granting the head of the land registry the authority to exempt, eliminate, transfer and cancel mortgages and or other encumbrances, depending on the case and under certain conditions.

The law sought to resolve the problems created by the failure to issue title deeds to people who had paid for their property, either because the property was mortgaged by the developer, or the state could not go ahead with the transfer because of outstanding taxes.

Since developers’ land and buildings were counted as assets that need to be offset against their debt to banks, this gave lenders a claim on people’s properties that had been mortgaged by developers.

However, following a string of court decisions in cases where banks objected to the law, the land registry suspended procedures, as authorities contemplated their next move.

The attorney-general subsequently instructed the departments involved to continue implementing the law while appeals were filed at the supreme court, which will have the final say on the matter.

Some of the court cases have been won by the banks, largely on the grounds that the buyer’s claim on the property infringed on the contract between the bank and the developer.

But in September, the Larnaca district court upheld the 2015 law, allowing trapped property buyers to obtain their title deeds irrespective of the developers’ own commitments to banks.

In his reply, Petrides said despite the matter not being resolved, the ministry had prepared a bill which it sent to the Legal Service for processing last October.

“As it transpired from the differing district court decisions, it is a complicated legal issue and due to this an in-depth study is required,” the minister said.

The bill will be forwarded to the cabinet as soon as it is processed by the state’s lawyers and from there to parliament for voting, he added.

“The interior ministry considers the issue of trapped buyers as very important and the delay in preparing the bill is due precisely to the difficulties cited above,” Petrides said, adding that efforts were being made to expedite the process.

Source: CyprusMail

The world’s tallest hotel is getting ready to open in Dubai, consisting of a whopping 75 floors and measuring 356 metres in height, as confirmed by the property to Time Out Dubai.

The Gevora Hotel, on Sheikh Zayed Road in the Trade Centre area, will contain 528 guest rooms and suites and four restaurants when it opens later this year.

The hotel is set to knock current record holder, Business Bay’s JW Marriott Marquis Dubai off the top spot (literally) by just one metre.

To put its huge stature in perspective, Gevora Hotel will be more than three times taller than Big Ben, 56 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower, and around equal to the length of three football pitches.

The developers haven’t scrimped on bedroom size, either. The smallest deluxe rooms measure 46 sq m, with the largest two-bedroom suite measuring a massive 85 sq m.

The new hotel will be a dry one and promises to “boast the best of Middle Eastern hospitality and exclusivity”.

As well as a main pool deck with swimming pool, Jacuzzi and kids’ pool, the health club on the 12th floor includes state-of-the-art facilities and separate ladies’ and men’s gyms for a vigorous workout or a refreshing quick dip.

If you’re a bit clueless when it comes to hitting the gym, fully qualified trainers are on hand to show you how it’s done. And when you’ve given your muscles a good work out, you can relax in the sauna and steam room, or better yet head up to the luxury spa on the 71st floor to unwind with your head in the clouds.

The property is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2018, though the official date is currently up in the air… (get it?)

Source:TimeOut Dubai

The area of construction projects that secured a building permit in January to October last year rose an annual 35 per cent, to 1,129,084 square meters, while their value rose 38 per cent, to €1.3bn, the statistical service said.

The increase was mainly on a 32 per cent annual increase in the construction area of housing projects, to 875,565 square meters, and a 33 per cent rise in their value, to €904m, Cystat said in a statement on its website on Monday.

The permits provide for the construction of 1,949 new detached houses, 26 per cent more compared to January to October 2016, Cystat said. The number of semi-detached houses to be built rose 23 per cent, to 640, and that of residential apartment blocks 82 per cent, to 1,089.

The building permit data shows that the construction area of licenced non-housing projects rose 31 per cent in the first 10 months of 2017, to 217,670 square meters, compared to the respective period of 2016, while their value rose 19 per cent, to €220,766.

Civil engineering projects that received a building permit in January to October rose in terms of construction area 637 per cent, to 35,849 square meters, Cystat said. Their value rose 532 per cent to €102m.

Building permits are a significant economic indicator.

Source: CyprusMail