The budget of the Turkish Cypriot Property Fund, which was presented on Tuesday to the Refugee Committee, is in deficit, while it relies heavily on state sponsorship. The Director-General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Kostas Konstantinou stated that a bill for the management of the fund's wider issue is before the Legal Service for legal technical control so that it can be submitted to the Parliament.
Presenting the budget, Giorgos Matthaiopoulos, Deputy Director of the T/C Property Management Service, said that for 2023 revenues of €15.8 million are expected, of which €7 million is a state grant to the management guardian, while € 4m expected from leasehold rents. The expenses of the fund are estimated at €16 million, resulting in a deficit of €765,000, which is expected to be covered by the accumulated amount of the Fund, amounting to €3 million.
Mr. Matthaiopoulos also noted that there are outstanding rents amounting to €8 million for all provinces. In order to handle the matter, he said that fixed-term employees have been hired, to collect whatever is possible, as part of the amount is uncollectible.
With reference to the maintenance of the residences, Mr. Matthaiopoulos mentioned that in some cases it is possible to give credits to the tenants to carry out maintenance themselves. These cases amount to 27% of the total expenditure on repairs, however there is a ceiling on the Agency's ability to control the execution of the work so it cannot be extended further.
He noted finally that, overall, available housing is minimal. “The service is not a solution,” he said, but it does cover a small fraction of refugees' housing needs, he said, urging people to look at the Ministry's housing programs as a whole.
For his part, the Director General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kostas Constantinou, said that “we are concerned that the management is deficient” and that the state pays around €8 million to manage it. He said a number of legislative documents have been prepared to manage the issue more broadly, to make it more efficient, at least for commercial real estate, and to bring more benefit to the fund to cover the costs.
He noted that the ideas were discussed in the advisory committee with the Minister and the parties were briefed on the executive's initiative. He said that the bill is with the Attorney General and the legal technical review is expected to be completed before it can be submitted to Parliament.
Answering questions from MPs, he said that responding to requests for maintenance and late rents is a chronic problem. “Things must be weighed, in order to protect the interests of the owner, for the benefit of the refugee,” he noted. He added that efforts are being made to collect the amounts, while he expects that the reform will facilitate the work of the agency.
He reiterated that the fund is in deficit and therefore what projects can be done depends on it. He noted that the state sponsorship cannot be increased, on the contrary, it must be reduced, because if the way the fund operates and the efficiency of leases, especially in commercial real estate, is improved, there will be more revenue and more maintenance needs will be met.< /p>
He noted that within the new legislative framework that is expected to be submitted, there is also the element of the inheritance of the contract, after a static adequacy study has been carried out, to allow the inheritance of residences, with the condition of assuming responsibility for maintenance. “This will free up resources from the fund and capabilities,” he noted.
He also said that the asset management fund is only an additional tool of the overall refugee issue. The key tool is the Displaced Persons Care and Rehabilitation Service, he added. He mentioned that the income criteria have changed and more refugees become beneficiaries, while the amounts have also increased depending on the composition of the family.
In his statements after the end of the meeting, the President of the Committee, AKEL Member of Parliament, Nikos Kettiros, noted that “it is a budget that does not meet the expectations and needs of the refugee world”. He added that “we've seen a budget that has serious issues to deal with that haven't been dealt with over the years,” such as housing repairs, delays in processing applications, mismanagement.
“It is promised that everything will magically be fixed when the new criteria for the management of t/c assets are submitted and approved, which are still in the Legal Service for legal review and you understand that if they are not submitted in the near future, they will not the Parliament has time to examine them”, he noted. He added that in the context of the new criteria, it is the consideration of hereditary succession of houses. “If these houses are not repaired to be handed over to the users, it is as if the state is handing them over a “shack”, as was done with the refugee settlements a few years ago,” he concluded.
DISY Member of Parliament, Rita Theodorou Superman said about the proposed budget for the settlement of the issue of deficit management, bills for a comprehensive settlement and modernization of the whole issue have been forwarded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Legal Service. After the legal technical review, the specific bills will be forwarded to the Parliament for voting. “These bills will solve many of the problems that have existed over time, including covering the deficit resulting from unpaid rents, where procedures for termination of the contract and eviction will be initiated, as well as arrangements for the payment of rents,” he noted.
On behalf of DIPA-Synergasia, MP Michalis Giakoumis said that within the budget for the Turkish Cypriot property fund, there is a fund, which will be used for the repair, maintenance and cleaning of Turkish Cypriot ancient mosques, monuments and cemeteries. “Something that proves in practice our dedication to the protection and preservation of ancient and religious monuments of the Turkish Cypriots. The least the occupying regime could do is to show the same respect for the monuments, churches and cemeteries of Greek Cypriots in our occupied territories”, he noted.
He added that another important point of the budget is the fund for the maintenance and repair of Turkish Cypriot houses, in the free areas, where Greek Cypriot refugees live. “We would like to see an increase in this specific fund, as many houses are over 50 years old and their maintenance costs many thousands of euros”.
Mr. Giakoumis said that as DIPA, their position is the need for comprehensive policy design based on individual needs, as there are up to four generations of refugees today, most of them without real estate and therefore need to be supported by assistance in Turkish Cypriot properties, housing policy, vocational rehabilitation and housing, education, equal distribution of burdens, as well as for loss of use. That's why “as DIPA, we propose the creation of a single body for the displaced people of 1974”.
