Cyprus launched the first citizenship by investment program (CIP) in Europe on July 11, 2007, that is twelve years ago from now. Though the scheme was largely unpopular in the beginning, it only gained momentum and took off in 2013 when Cyprus eased the citizenship requirements to recover from bank bailout.
Today the Cyprus investment scheme has raised €6.5 billion euros since 2013. With the quota currently set at 700 annual applicants and each investors making €2.1m, Cyprus expected to further receive €1.4 billion euros annually flowing largely into real estate and other investment sectors makes Cyprus a world leader for having biggest and largest investment citizenship schemes in the world.
The Government decision no 65.824 dated 11 July 2007 established the first investor’s citizenship by investment scheme in Cyprus. The scheme required CYP 15 million cyprus pounds, which is equivalent to €25 million euros of today’s value.
Remember Cyprus Cyprus adopted euro in Jan 2008 before that the currency used was Cypriot pounds.
Here is the timeline
- 2007 – First investor citizenship scheme established for EUR 25 million or Alternatively, an investor could to deposit an amount of EUR 15 million with a bank or to set up a company with an annual turnover of at least EUR 10 million.
- 2011 – Investments reduced EUR 10 million
- 2013 – Investments further reduced to EUR 3 million or EUR 5 mn (bank deposits) due to Cyprus hit by financial bailout crisis in 2013. President Nikos Anastasiadis, made a number of changes to the naturalization investment plan.
- 2016 – Investments reduced to EUR 2 million to encourage more investment, was another significant milestone
- 2018 – Investment EUR 2 million remained the same, but quotas of 700 imposed and CIP registry setup
- 2019 – Investment increased to EUR 2.15 million, new schengen visa requirement imposed and prices increased by EUR150K
