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How to choose a renovation company in Cyprus

What you can verify about a Cyprus renovation company before you sign: registrations, VAT rate, insurance dates, and what a complete quote itemises.

8 min read

How to Choose a House Renovation in Cyprus — illustrasjonsbilde

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ByStavros Loizou· Editor, kitchens, bathrooms and finishes

Stavros covers the rooms that carry the most cost per square metre and the finishes that go into them. He tracks the order trades have to arrive in, which moves a Cypriot renovation bill further than any hourly rate does.

Published

Four things can be checked before you hand over a deposit: that the business exists and is current at the Registrar of Companies, that it is registered for VAT and has told you which rate it is charging, that its insurance covers the dates your job runs, and that whoever signs any structural or permit drawing is on the ETEK register. Everything else said across your kitchen table is unverifiable — which is not a reason to distrust anyone, but it is a reason to write the quote properly. A renovation is four or five trades in sequence inside somebody else's concrete frame, and the company you are choosing is really the person who sequences them.

What can actually be verified

That the company exists, and is up to date. The Registrar of Companies search is public and free: registered name, number, directors, filing history. A trading name that differs from the registered name is normal here. A company incorporated weeks before it quoted you, or years behind on returns, is not a scandal either — but it tells you who would be answering the phone in month four.

That it is registered for VAT, and which rate it applies. Registration is compulsory above €15,600 of taxable turnover in any twelve-month period. A company quoting a whole-house renovation with no VAT anywhere on the paper is either far smaller than it looks or is not accounting for it — and that becomes your problem too, because the reduced renovation rate only exists inside the VAT system.

That the insurance is in force on your dates. Ask for the certificates, not the reassurance. Read the two dates before the sum insured, then read the sum insured against what is genuinely at risk: a scaffold over a pavement, a water feed left open above a neighbour's ceiling, a chased wall in a block where the flat below is someone's home. If a crew arrives rather than the person who quoted, ask whether those people are the company's employees, covered by its social insurance, or subcontractors with their own cover.

What you cannot verify is whether the finish will be good or the programme will hold. We publish no ratings, stars or testimonials, for renovation companies or any other trade, because a rating is the one item here that cannot be checked against a document. Ordering on our renovation listings comes from registrations, district coverage and years in business, with the weighting set out on our methodology page. For human evidence, ask for the address of a house the company finished two or three winters ago and go and look at it.

Registrations that matter

Contractor registration. Building works above a value threshold must be carried out by a contractor registered in the appropriate class, and the class caps the value of works that contractor may lawfully take on. Most cosmetic work sits below it; a full strip-back with structural alterations often does not. Ask which class they hold.

ETEK. The statutory chamber for engineers and architects. If you are opening up anything in the frame, or submitting for a permit, a registered professional signs that work. Subcontracting it is normal practice; refusing to name the person is not.

Manufacturer schemes. Waterproofing systems and external insulation carry warranties that only hold if an approved applicator installs them to a specified build-up. The supplier confirms membership over the phone, and where a warranty is part of the sale, that call is what makes it worth something.

Questions to ask

Ask everyone the same questions, in the same words, and compare the answers before you compare the totals.

  1. What is actually behind these walls?

    Around Strovolos and the older Nicosia suburbs, the stock being renovated now is 1970s to 1990s apartment blocks, and in those flats the money goes on rewiring and replumbing rather than on paint. Ask whether the electrics and water pipework are being renewed or reused, and get the answer in writing either way.

  2. Is anything I want to move structural?

    In a concrete-framed building the columns and beams carry the house and the blockwork does not. Opening a kitchen into a living room is usually straightforward; touching a column never is. Ask who assesses that and whether their name goes on a drawing.

  3. Does any of this need permission?

    Work that leaves the structure, the external appearance and the use of the building alone is treated very differently from work that alters any of them. Adding area, enclosing a veranda or forming new openings takes you into permit territory: planning permission first, building permit second, through the district or municipal authority.

  4. What is the sequence, and who holds it?

    Strip-out, structural, first fix, plaster and screed, tiling, second fix, joinery, decoration, making good. Trades that arrive out of order redo each other's work at your expense. Ask who calls each one in.

  5. What are you doing about heat and damp?

    Inland around Nicosia the temperature range is the widest on the island, and it drives insulation and shading decisions that are far cheaper while the walls are open. On the coast at Kato Paphos the issue is salt in the air, which is why galvanised and marine-grade fixings are standard there.

  6. How does anything get in and out?

    On the hillside plots around Peyia, steep access roads limit delivery vehicle and crane size, which changes both method and price. In an apartment block the constraint is the stairwell, the lift and where a skip can legally stand.

  7. Has anyone looked at the ground?

    In parts of Pissouri, ground movement is well enough understood that a structural survey before major work is standard. The same caution applies to any sloping plot and any house already showing diagonal cracking.

Finally: who is on site every day, and who do you ring when something is wrong?

What a good quote looks like

Start from the parts, not the total.

A rate per square metre is a starting point, not an answer. The same flat costs very differently depending on whether the pipework is renewed, whether anything structural moves, how far the finishes go and whether the building has a lift.

A quote you can act on has:

  • The scope broken into stages, priced stage by stage rather than as one number at the bottom.
  • Provisional sums named as provisional, so you know which figures are waiting on a decision you have not made yet.
  • Payments tied to completed stages rather than calendar dates.
  • A retention held back until an agreed defects period ends, with the percentage and release date written down.
  • The VAT rate stated, with the reason it applies.
  • Exclusions listed explicitly — permit and professional fees, connection charges, appliances, kitchens and landscaping are the usual ones.
  • A programme in working days, with a start date conditional on whatever it genuinely depends on.
  • The named site manager, and the named professional if drawings are involved.

Give every company the same written scope. Comparing quotes that describe different work is not comparing anything. Our renovation project guides set out what each room involves and in what order, and the district pages show who already works near you — travel time is priced into day rates, so a Limassol crew quoting for Polis Chrysochous is quoting the drive as well.

Warning signs

  • One total, no stages, no scope. There is nothing in it to hold anyone to.
  • A price far below the others. That is rarely efficiency; it is usually a smaller scope, and what is missing is normally first fix and making good.
  • Cash only, no VAT number, no company name on the paper you were handed.
  • An offer to start structural work before the permit is issued. Unauthorised work follows the property and surfaces when you sell or update the title.
  • A deposit large enough to fund an entire stage before anything is delivered.
  • Refusal to name the engineer or architect signing a drawing.
  • Ratings or testimonials offered in place of a registration number and an insurance certificate.

Common questions

Do I need a permit to renovate a house in Cyprus?

It depends on what you change, not on what you spend. Work that leaves the structure, the external appearance and the use of the building alone is treated very differently from work that alters any of them. Adding floor area, enclosing a veranda, forming new openings or touching the frame takes you into permit territory, where the order is planning permission first and building permit second, through the district or municipal authority. Ask the authority, or the professional who would sign the drawings, before assuming either way.

How long does a full renovation take?

Nobody can give you a number for a house they have not opened up. What determines it is how many trades are involved, whether the wiring and pipework are renewed, whether a permit is required, how long lead-in items such as joinery, glazing and sanitaryware take to arrive, and how much of the programme depends on subcontractors working elsewhere.

Is an old village house worth renovating?

Sometimes, and the honest answer only comes after someone has looked at it. Stone and mud-brick village houses behave nothing like a concrete frame: the walls need to breathe, cement renders and impermeable paints trap moisture in them, and the roof structure usually decides the budget.

Can I live in the house while the work happens?

For a single room, usually. For a whole-house renovation with first fix work, rarely in any comfort — water and power go off, dust travels, and the programme slows because the crew is working around you. If you do stay, agree which rooms remain usable, how dust is separated and what hours the crew keeps, in writing and before the start date.

How much deposit is normal?

A payment proportionate to what is being ordered or mobilised, rather than a share of the total picked at random.

Renovation companies with checked registrations

8 companies covering this area.

Sources

  1. Tax Department — VAT rates and registration — retrieved 2026-07-28
  2. Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property — retrieved 2026-07-28
  3. Department of Town Planning and Housing — planning and building permits — retrieved 2026-07-28
  4. Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) — register of engineers and architects — retrieved 2026-07-28

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