Once a key driver of the country's economic growth, Cyprus' booming real estate sector has begun to slide. And while local buyers and a major government construction project offer some potential support, the market's biggest hope could come from much farther away, in the form of wealthy Russians looking to buy up island property.
Though Russians make up approximately 20 percent of Cyprus's foreign property market -- a relatively small percentage compared to the 60 percent share the British occupy -- real estate agents say Russian buyers are purchasing the island's most expensive properties, and doing so at far higher prices than most of their British counterparts.
"We've sold villas worth 5 million, 6 million euros recently," said Antonis Loizou, managing partner of Antonis-Loizou, a real estate agency based in the country's capital, Nicosia. "We've never had this sort of clientele before."
"There may be a reduction of [overall property] demand, but there may be an increase at the top end of the market," he said.
