Βασός Βασιλείου
With the signing of an agreement between the Municipality of Limassol and the Cyprus Land Development Organization (KOAG) the cube was laid for the construction of about 600 housing units in the municipality and the project is expected to be completed in the period 2025-2026, as the mayor of Limassol told “F” , Nikos Nikolaidis.
The houses will be erected in three municipal plots of 31,081 sq.m., (2 in Agios Nikolaos and 1 in Agios Ioannis) and the cost will be around € 100 million. This large project is part of the program for development of “Affordable Housing” infrastructure . The units will have one to four rooms, depending on the composition of each family. The first apartment building will begin construction in 2022 and is expected to be completed two years later.
As Mr. Nikolaidis stated after yesterday's signing of the agreement, the approximately 600 modern units will be built on the basis of the principles of sustainable development and environmental planning, with supportive social service areas, in order to ensure a high level of quality of life and prevent any social marginalization of the inhabitants in these dwellings. According to the mayor of Limassol, “the agreement overturns and radically changes the course of events in our country in terms of social and affordable housing.”
It sets, he said, the framework on the basis of which the Municipality of Limassol and the COAG will allocate the housing units for rent or purchase at a rate of 80% and 20%, respectively, to an equal number of families. As Mr. Nikolaidis mentioned in “F”, the rent of the apartments will be set 30% below the current prices in the market.
This project, he continued, is a strong step towards tackling the huge problem of high rents and homelessness faced by middle- and low-income families in our country, and especially in Limassol. I want to emphasize, he added, that this project will provide a decent housing solution to the families who currently live in the degraded infrastructure in the three plots to be developed “.
The mayor also said that the beneficiaries for renting or buying a housing unit will be individuals or families based on objective and fully transparent criteria, which have already been decided and which will be announced soon.
He also explained that the cooperation between the Municipality of Limassol and KOAG is implemented in the form of consideration and the whole project will be implemented in three phases, with respective additional agreements to be signed by both parties. The first phase envisages the construction of six apartment buildings, four in one of the two plots of Agios Nikolaos and two in part of the plot in Agios Ioannis.
In addition to the other factors taken into account in the promotion of the project, the following factors were taken into account: The reduced building stock for rent at affordable prices, the increase in the number of low and moderately paid households, the inability to borrow from low and low , the increase in the number of students in the city and the great need for social housing.
The mayor of Limassol believes that the implementation of the project will bring social, economic and environmental benefits. The project is considered to offer an upgraded quality of life with landscaping, creation of attractive outdoor spaces, improvement of the microclimate of the area, achievement of thermal comfort conditions, as well as aesthetic upgrade.
During the signing of the agreement, Mr. Nikolaidis thanked on behalf of the Limassol City Council the president of KOAG Elena Kousiou – Hatzidimitriou (with whom he co-signed the agreement) and the other members of the Board of the Organization, as well as the former chairman of KOAG and current Government Spokesman Mario Pelekano and for his own contribution to the agreement. He thanked the Minister of Interior, Nikos Nouri, for his presence in the signing of the agreement.
