I Choose Buyer Protection Over the Real Estate Industry

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. My name is Malia and welcome back to my YouTube channel.

[00:00:04]Today is a very special video where I'm going to once again speak to you openly about property market of Northern Cyprus, but this time around I'm going to give you true insights from the inside of the industry.

[00:00:18]I'm going to speak about the challenges real buyers are facing today when searching for a property and of course I'm going to touch base on the chaos on the market and basically on a real true examples.

[00:00:30]But most importantly, I'm going to explain to you why I'm choosing to exit the real estate industry and position myself very differently in this unfair to the buyers real estate battle. My dear viewers, if you are planning to move to Northern Cyprus, buy a property, invest into the property, retire, rent, or you simply explore the island as potential future home, there is one thing you need to understand very clearly.

[00:00:57]Northern Cyprus is an amazing place. It offers a mild climate, absolute safety, a close sense of community, financial freedom, as well as very easy uh and straightforward residency pathways. But at the same time, it's not the market where one should make blind decisions based on emotions, beautiful views, or promises alone because one little mistake can cost you a lot more than people might expect. So, today I would like to take you back into the beginning of my journey in real estate in Northern Cyprus and explain to you why I've decided to step away from the traditional real estate game and position myself very differently on the market. When I first arrived to Northern Cyprus, the property market was booming back in 2022.

[00:01:49]Off-plan sales were everywhere. We saw project after project after project popping up on the market and being sold out in a matter of weeks. And of course, the huge demand was coming from the CIS countries for the obvious reasons. So, a lot of people back then in 2022 came here with a serious capital. The goal for majority of the clientele back then was very clear. People wanted to move their capital back from their home countries to a safe place where they potentially can invest, safeguard their assets, and hopefully exit later on with a strong profit or rent it out later on for a passive income. So, shortly after I arrived and I saw the boom, of course, I decided to explore opportunities both work-wise as well as investment-wise for myself. So, I started working for one of the companies and we started a very lengthy learning process that lasted for about 6 months. We learned about the locations, the developers, the developments, the payment plans, the floor plans, basically everything that's all the information that's involved into the selling the off-plan.

[00:02:51]Aside of that, of course, we learned the contract terms, you know, the legal procedures, the what kind of title deeds are out there, basically when the title deed can be transferred, so forth.

[00:03:03]And along the way also we learned the figures, the numbers that needed to be presented to the potential buyers, including the rental projections and resale expectations. Once the learning process was finished, obviously we were trained on what we should communicate to the clientele in order to sell. And some of the things, seriously, I could not believe I was hearing.

[00:03:24]So, let me just give you a few examples.

[00:03:25]One of the things that we were expected to communicate to the client is that we can recover the investment, basically resell the investment in as little as 6 months to a year with a 30 to 50% profit practically guaranteed based on the previous figures.

[00:03:40]We were also expected to say the contract did not require to be registered, which would help in turn to avoid excess taxation, because why would you register it if you're planning to resell it with a 50% yield return, why would you spend extra money on taxes? And as well as that, we were also expected to talk about the rental yield returns with the figures of as much as 12 to 15% yearly net, almost guaranteed in words but never on paper, of course.

[00:04:07]And the worst part about the whole thing was that this was not the only company that was doing this thing.

[00:04:13]Rest of the companies that were selling off plans were saying to the clients exactly the same. And the irony of the whole story is is that the companies making the biggest promises on the market were often the ones selling the most.

[00:04:28]At the same time, there were, of course, companies that actually knew the market properly. They've been here on the market for decades and understood the reality and were never making promises to the clients when it comes to the off plan.

[00:04:42]And to say these companies didn't really sell that much of the off plan if they sold any at all because, let's be honest, honesty does not always sell as fast as the fantasy and the promises.

[00:04:53]Needless to say, I wasn't really comfortable communicating to the clientele the things that I was expected to say because, you see, prior coming to Northern Cyprus, I already owned and run two businesses. One of them was in automotive industry back at home in Russia. The other one was a doggy daycare for 3 years in Canada.

[00:05:11]And in both businesses, as I was running them, my approach was always the same.

[00:05:16]Provide a proper service, be honest, be transparent, bring real value to the clientele. And of course, I was never comfortable with misleading people on information, neither by the chance selling the fake promises.

[00:05:29]And that's how I lived and worked for many years. So, when I entered this market and I saw how easily people are being pushed into decisions, it felt very wrong and it went against my principles, my peace, and the way I would like to work. So, at some point shortly after, I thought maybe the problem was the agency's site and I thought maybe, just maybe, if I worked for a developer and represented a strong product directly, it would feel better and it would align with my ethics.

[00:06:00]Needless to say, I was wrong again. Even when the developer itself had an ethical policy and a good product, I still had to deal with agents who were hungry for high commissions and fast sales.

[00:06:14]Some agents were so focused on closing the deal that they were ready to mislead the clients about extra costs, taxes, registration, location benefits, or rental potential. But, representing a development, I still had to align with the agents' principles and desires because, let's face it, agents are the ones bringing the clients for the product we represented.

[00:06:38]Agents are the drivers of this industry, right? And the more aggressive an agent is, the more clients he or she is able to bring and close on a particular development. At that time, the market had already started slowing down and we could clearly see the early signs of stagnations.

[00:06:58]But, certain agents were still selling the dream as if nothing had changed with the 30% capital appreciation over 1-year term.

[00:07:09]At that stage, I still wanted to believe I was doing the right thing, but I already knew back then that resale made a lot more sense to sell because they were a lot more beneficial in terms of pricing. But, as much as the resale market is in Northern Cyprus, trust me, there are heavy complications, too.

[00:07:30]Well, let me explain you in simple terms. First of all, if the title deed is still on a developer, it makes things a lot more complicated. First of all, we need to find out if the title deed has been issued. Then we need to find out what the reassignment cost is and trust me, it is not stable. It can change tomorrow. What are the unpaid taxes? Is there VAT or is there a difference in VAT being payable? Or is there VAT will be paid on the second time because the developer has requested to do so. Is there a truffle fee? Is it has it been changed? Or is the figure stable? Is there a stoppage tax that is actually a tax that belongs to the developer but now is being passed on to the owner because he decided to resell the property. It's not difficult to find out those costs. The difficult part about those costs is that those costs are not always stable.

[00:08:21]Today, the reassignment fee can be 2,000 pounds for the contract. Tomorrow, it can suddenly become 22,000 pounds for the contract. Today, the stoppage tax may be a responsibility of a developer and tomorrow, the developer might try to pass it on to the new buyer. And funny enough, in many cases, there is very little you can do about it as a owner of the property unless you hold the title deed. For those ones of you who are not familiar with the market, let me clarify one thing.

[00:08:49]Resales with no title deeds on a owner's name involve developer and involve reassignment fees.

[00:08:57]It is a three-party contract between the buyer, the seller, and the developer because developer is still holding the title deed.

[00:09:06]The buyer wants to proceed, the seller wants to proceed with the purchase, but the developer is not always in a hurry because they have little interest in a resale. So, even when everyone agrees on all the terms and conditions, you may still have to chase the developer just to show up and sign the agreement as a third party. Of course, when the title deed is on a owner's name, things are a lot easier because it's a two-party contract between the buyer and the seller with no influence from the third party.

[00:09:37]But even then, there are a lot of things that need to be checked and verified, including the type of title deed, the distance to the military zones for the foreigners, that's very important.

[00:09:49]Who is the title deed holder? Is there a POA on a lawyer from that title deed holder? How old is that title deed holder? Because that's very important matter, too. And that is just a legal side of the deal. There are also the practical sides, you know, how much can you sell it for in a future date if you decide to exit? How much is the potential yield return on a rental if you're looking for passive income? Is it a fairly priced property on a market? Is the commission that is placed being fair? And is it a good value for money?

[00:10:24]So, as difficult and complicated the process for the resales can be, this is where I felt more comfortable working because resales felt a lot more real to me, a lot more beneficial to the clients, more grounded, and felt less like a fantasy.

[00:10:41]But again, there was a catch. Northern Cyprus has almost 300 of only registered real estate agencies on the island for a relatively small population. So, let's be realistic in here.

[00:10:55]Can one single agency hold the best listings of the markets? No, it's not possible. Some agencies are better in Kyrenia, some are stronger in the center, some some in Iskele, some for apartments, some for villas, some have good access to the direct listings, and some simply advertise what everyone else is advertising.

[00:11:17]Um, does every agency assign a 45% fair commission?

[00:11:22]No, my friends, not every single agency does so. Some agency apply 10%, some 15.

[00:11:29]In some cases, we have seen agents selling a resale with a 100% profit, and that's a real true story. And if we look at the situation from another perspective, I will be very honest with you with the fact that agencies in here face a very tough competition. Those agencies bear an extremely high cost to run an unprecedented pressure from the tax office right now at an increasing rate for all the past sales that were off-plan that were mainly conducted by the unregistered agents.

[00:12:01]So, along with the licensing compliance and insurance and the government fees and the fixed cost, the employment costs of every agent that is employed is extremely high as well. So, in order to stay afloat, the sales at the agencies have to be conducted at all costs with the law of the times. Essential information not to be disclosed to the buyer for the sake of the sale. Once again, not all agents and agencies are like that, but substantial amount of them will follow this particular pathway. Because you see, not one single agency on this market can hold the entire listings of the properties in Northern Cyprus, right? Sometimes agencies need to partner in order to close the deal. In theory, it works very well. As an example, let's say one agent has the client, another agent has the listing. You know, they close the client on the preferred property, and they share the commission, which is 2 and 1/2% each, which is normal. But, in reality, sometimes things become a little bit crazy and get out of hand because you can have a property listed, let's say as an example, for £120,000 with a fair for the market 4 to 5% commission, and another partnering agent brings a client and adds in front of you 40 to 50 to 60k on the top of the purchase price.

[00:13:24]In In cases, we have seen resales being sold with an insane margins, as I already mentioned to you, of 100%.

[00:13:32]So, if you are inside the system, you clearly see that this is wrong, but in reality, you cannot do anything about it because you are within the system.

[00:13:43]And the agent who brings the clients, that agent sets the terms. You may want to play fair, you may want to protect the client, but if you are working inside a company with partners, with listings that come from other agencies, you become trapped within the system and play by the system rules. And that is exactly the problem of the market because this particular market is very chaotic. You know something is wrong, but as part of the system, you do not always have the power to stop it.

[00:14:16]And again, I want to be very clear and transparent with you. Not all agencies are like that. There are ethical agencies, honest agents, and people who work properly and genuinely try to protect their clients. But usually, those are not the loudest ones. And often, very often, they are not the biggest sellers because they do not over-promise. They do not sell a fantasy, and they tell people the truth.

[00:14:43]And the truth does not always close the deal quickly. And to be fully transparent with you, uh over the years, I have broken, I think, more deals than I've actually made.

[00:14:53]And honestly, I'm not ashamed of that because sometimes breaking a deal is the right thing to do because you save the people from making a very expensive mistake.

[00:15:03]Um to tell you one story, uh last year, there was a group of people that came to co-invest 5 million pounds into a project by the seafront in Boğaz.

[00:15:12]To note, prior to saying anything out loud, this project was as close to the military zone as 100 m, and those investors were foreigners.

[00:15:21]The land was being offered as a security for 5 million pounds in case the project was not delivered when the actual proven price of that land was 800,000 pounds.

[00:15:32]So, the reality hit them very hard when I revealed the true information to them based on what I know.

[00:15:39]But, did anyone else clearly explain this to them? No.

[00:15:44]A local lawyer, an individual that holds a license on this island, did not say a word to an investor that he will never ever be able to take the land on his name because it's next to the military zone.

[00:15:57]Why did the lawyer do so? Well, most likely because the service pay was too good to refuse. So, my friends, it was a pure example of scam of foreigners, and those people contacted me a day prior their arrival and signing the contract.

[00:16:14]Glad I was able to help. Another bizarre situation I see all the time on this island is when buyers come through a friend or even relatives.

[00:16:24]And let me tell you something very honestly, sometimes friends are the most dangerous referral source because some people push buyers towards a certain agent or a project not because it's the best option, but because they want the highest referral commission. And the buyer thinks, "Well, this is my friend.

[00:16:44]I can trust them." But, behind the scenes, the motivation may be completely different. We've also discussed with my uh clients a similar situation with the friends that was pushing them towards Iskele 2 years ago in the interview that I've posted on my YouTube channel as well. Feel free to watch it. And then we have the advertising platforms, and if you ever have ever searched for the property online in Northern Cyprus, you probably know what I'm talking about.

[00:17:14]You can uh practically see the same property advertised by several different agencies at different prices containing different information.

[00:17:24]You can see the listings that are no longer available just because an agency wants to offer you some other listings and some other properties when getting your number. You can see the beautiful adverts that do not clearly mention the most important information such as the title deed type, their assignment costs, the unpaid taxes, the VAT whether it was paid or not paid. Of course, the military zone proximity would never be mentioned. Developer charges, legal complications, or practical problems that can be linked to that particular listing. Sometimes you book a viewing and later discover that the price has changed or the property has already been sold or the paperwork is not what you have expected or even the great deal comes with a hidden cost nobody mentioned before you put the deposit down.

[00:18:16]And many buyers only find out the real situation after they have already invested their time, their emotions, and sometimes their money.

[00:18:26]And that is the real problem when searching for the property independently because buying a property here is not just about choosing a nice apartment with a nice sea views. It's about the understanding the full picture. So, for a new buyer that just started exploring the market and has limited time being here, it can be almost impossible to break down this market alone.

[00:18:48]And if you're trying to understand the different areas, different projects, the title deeds, the agents, the taxes, the promises, and on a top of that, you need to know whom to trust. Even choosing a lawyer in here can be complicated because sometimes lawyers also have their own interest or they simply do not want to go deep enough into a detail of particular listing. So, yes, this market does have good people and it has fair players and of course it has real opportunities, particularly now. But, at the same time, this market also has a lot of noise with a lot of pressure and a lot of confusion.

[00:19:27]And that is exactly why I am changing my role in this industry.

[00:19:33]I am stepping away from the traditional real estate game. I do not want to be part of the system anymore where I'm expected to stay silent about uncomfortable details.

[00:19:44]I do not want to be pushing people into whatever is available and I do not want to sell a dream without explaining the risks. So, today I'm choosing to be on the buyer's side because I want to help people to understand the market properly. I want to help people to understand the reality, the risks, the benefits and the island as a whole because let's face it, Northern Cyprus can be an incredible place to live but only if you approach it with open eyes.

[00:20:15]My goal now is very simple. I want to help people make informed decisions. I want to help you to save your time and avoid confusion. Filter the real opportunities from the market noise, understand whether the property is genuinely good value or just well advertised and avoid risky locations. I am here to help you see clearly because I genuinely believe that this island has a lot to offer but it must be approached carefully. The market is already noisy enough and my role in here is to bring you clarity, give you directions, help you slow down, think properly and compare properly and choose wisely.

[00:20:55]And there is one more thing before I let you all go. I am also opening a donation option to support this channel because because creating honest and transparent content takes time, resources, and a lot of courage in this case. And if you find value in this channel, if my videos help you understand the reality of Northern Cyprus market better, I would truly appreciate the support from your side.

[00:21:22]Let's bring more clarity, honesty, and transparency to the Northern Cyprus market once and for all. And let's make your Northern Cyprus journey safer, smarter, and more informed.

[00:21:34]Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you in the next episode.