The main goal is to make our country an attractive destination for high quality tourism
The amendment of the policy for the golf courses, in order to achieve the creation of a total remarkable infrastructure of the golf courses as an alternative and enriching tourist product, is requested in its letter by the Association of Great Developments.
The Association even submitted specific proposals which were presented both before the competent Minister of Agriculture Mr. Costas Kadis, and before the Committee for the Development of Golf Courses.
The aim is, as the Association emphasizes, to attract high quality tourism, making Cyprus an attractive destination for this purpose.
More specifically, the Association of Large Developments highlights the issue of the difficulty of issuing planning permits. due to the requirements of the Department of Water Development to first complete the construction and operation of the necessary water supply projects and other infrastructure. Both the Town Planning and the competent Minister agreed with the proposal of the Association, so that these requirements are met at the stage of the building permit.
Another equally important issue raised by the Association is the abolition of the bank guarantee or insurance of € 2.5 million in favor of the state for the management of the golf course.
Another deterrent to investing in golf courses is the payment of Water Supply Connection Rights for each plot / building, according to the practice followed in the usual land divisions in plots that in the case of courts amount to at least € 1.5 million per field.
According to the Association, golf course development companies bear the full cost of building the necessary infrastructure, such as the public road network and services (including water and irrigation networks) and, in addition, the cost of transporting water to development, as well as its storage and connection with the plots under construction. This additional cost ranges, as the case may be, from € 2.0 million – € 5.0 million. Therefore, it is unfair for golf developments to be charged with these Connection Fees for work performed by them, while the Local Authority collects these fees without incurring any costs that justify the imposition of the water supply fee, as is the case with the usual plot divisions.
For the above reasons, the Association suggests that Water Supply Connection Rights should not be imposed in the case of Golf Course developments.
Regarding the general policy of reducing the cost of water consumption for golf courses, the Association suggests that the special provision for charging the cost of transporting water to the point of delivery be eliminated, reduce the financial fee from 15 to 10 cents, in order to align with football stadium irrigation fee and reduce the environmental and resource fee from 8 to 2 cents, in order to align again with the football stadium irrigation fee. Mr. Kadis, for his part, gave instructions for the review of the issue by the Department of Water with a possibility of reducing fees for the wider agricultural sector by 20% by mid-2021.
