The Department of Lands and Surveys (DLS) Director, Dr. Ellikos Elia, through an Interview with the Cyprus News Agency on the 21st May 2023, stated the following (in summary):
- The registration of new Contracts of Sales rose by 20% since the beginning of the year 2023 in comparison with the previous year
- Mortgages have decreased by 35% accordingly
- Pending titles to be issued amount to 9500 as compared to 20000 in the year 2021
- DLS recovery has been very stable after the recent Cyber-attack incident – still access from overseas is not available due to security measures – the INSPIRE Geoportal is still not available
- In a period of less than a week after the Cyber-attack incident, DLS was able to accept transfers, mortgages and the registration of encumbrances
- Dr. Elia would like to express his sincere thanks to all people / employees involved for the quick recovery of the DLS IT Infrastructure. Special thanks go to the Minister of Interior, the Permanent Secretary, as well as the Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Innovation and the Digital Security Authority
- DLS requirement according to the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan is to issue 16000 new titles – 4700 titles have already been issued while 5800 have been rejected
- 15% of the developments examined through the above have serious irregularities
- Alternative ways to make an application and retrieve documents is now available at the District Lands Offices
