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What window replacement costs in Nicosia in 2026

What sets the rate for window replacement in Nicosia, what quotes routinely leave out, and how to get three prices onto the same basis before you decide.

9 min read

What Window Replacement Costs in Cyprus in 2026 — illustrasjonsbilde

Photo: Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels

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

Window replacement in Nicosia is quoted per unit or per square metre of opening, and the figure is set by four things: the frame system, the glass inside it, how the old frame comes out, and how the new one is fixed back into a concrete-and-block wall. A like-for-like swap in a ground-floor house and the same window on the fourth floor of a block with no lift are not the same job.

The short answer

Window quotes in Cyprus arrive as a schedule: each opening measured, each unit priced, then a separate figure for removal, fixing, sealing and making good. One number for "the windows" without that schedule cannot be compared with anything. Below is what has actually been quoted in the Nicosia district, read from our records when the page loads rather than typed into the text and left to age.

Two specification points sit under every one of those numbers. The performance of a double-glazed unit comes from the glass coating and the cavity, not the frame material alone — two windows that look identical from the street can behave very differently on an August afternoon. And thermally broken aluminium separates the inner and outer profiles, which the single-profile frames in much of the older Cypriot stock do not. Those are the two lines most commonly left vague.

What drives the range

The frame system. Aluminium dominates in Cyprus, from basic sliding profiles to thermally broken casement and tilt-and-turn. uPVC is priced differently again, and timber is a specialist choice that brings a maintenance schedule with it. Within aluminium, the jump from a non-broken profile to a thermally broken one is the biggest single step in the frame price.

The glass. Clear double glazing, a low-emissivity coating, a solar-control coating, laminated safety glass, acoustic laminate — each is a different unit at a different price in the same frame. In Nicosia the coating question is not decorative: the city sits inland and takes the widest temperature range on the island, so the glass is fighting solar gain in the afternoon and losing heat on winter nights, and those want different answers. A supplier who asks which elevation each window faces is doing the job properly.

The opening method. Sliders, casements, tilt-and-turn and fixed lights are different amounts of hardware and fitting time. Large sliding doors onto a veranda — common in Cypriot houses — need careful setting out and often two fitters plus lifting help for one leaf.

Shutters, grilles and insect screens. Most Cypriot windows have external roller shutters and many have insect screens or security grilles. Whether the existing shutter box is kept, replaced or integrated into the new frame is one of the largest swings in a quote, and it is frequently left off the first schedule entirely.

How the old frame comes out. A frame cut out cleanly leaves a neat reveal. One levered out takes plaster, tiles or render with it. Older aluminium frames in Cyprus were often built in as the blockwork went up, so the surround needs making good on both faces — plastering inside, render and paint outside. This is the item that turns a tidy quote into an untidy invoice.

The building and the access. Strovolos and the surrounding Nicosia suburbs carry a large stock of 1970s to 1990s apartment blocks: no lift, narrow stairwells, and openings that were never quite square, so each unit is made to its own measurement rather than a repeated size. You may also need the management committee's agreement, because from the street the windows are part of the block's appearance rather than yours alone.

Season and lead time. Frames are made to measure, so there is a wait between survey and fitting whether the profiles are fabricated locally or imported. Booking around spring or autumn is easier than through the summer, and it means the house is not open to the afternoon heat on fitting day.

Cost by district

Nicosia usually produces the tightest window quotes in Cyprus, for unglamorous reasons: fabricators are close, the building stock is uniform, and there is no salt in the air to change the specification. Set against the other four districts of the Republic — Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and the free area of Famagusta — the pattern runs like this.

In Limassol, rapid high-rise development has raised demand for access equipment, and a window on a seafront tower is priced with a platform and a lift booking in mind. Coastal exposure is the Paphos variable: in Kato Paphos the air carries salt, so galvanised and marine-grade fixings are standard and the coating on the frame matters as much as the profile behind it. Hillside plots around Peyia limit delivery vehicle size, awkward when the load is a set of full-height sliding doors, and Polis Chrysochous is far enough from the contractor base in Paphos that travel time is priced into most day rates. In the free area of Famagusta the constraint is the calendar: Ayia Napa and Protaras are largely seasonal accommodation, so replacement work concentrates between November and March and fitters are scarce in that window rather than cheap.

For a Nicosia homeowner the implication is narrow. A fabricator in Dali quoting for a flat in Aglantzia has almost no travel cost to recover, so if one of your three quotes is much higher, the reason is in the schedule, not the postcode. Our district pages record what changes in each area, and the window replacement section lists firms by where they are based.

What is usually excluded

Most window quotes in Cyprus are honest and narrow. The gap between a low one and a high one is nearly always these items, present in one and absent in the other:

  • Removal and disposal of the old frames and glass
  • Making good the internal reveals: plaster, paint and any tiling disturbed
  • Making good externally: render, sills and paint around each opening
  • Roller shutters, shutter boxes, guides and motors
  • Insect screens and security grilles, and refitting existing ones
  • Window sills, both internal boards and external weathering
  • Sealing and pointing around the frame, and any flashing at the head
  • Access equipment: towers, platforms, hoisting and lift bookings
  • Structural work where an opening is changed rather than refilled
  • Curtain tracks and blinds taken down and refitted

Two of these matter more than the rest. Making good is one: it is a plasterer's and a decorator's day, not a glazier's, and it is the most common reason two quotes for the same windows are far apart. Shutters are the other, because whether the boxes stay or go changes the price and the programme.

How to compare quotes

Then check the commercial terms.

Payment stages. A deposit against fabrication is normal, because the frames are made to your openings and cannot be resold. Paying the balance before the units are fitted, sealed and made good is not. Keep a final amount back until every opening is signed off, reveals included.

VAT, and which rate applies. Renovation and repair of a private residence that has been in use for more than three years can be invoiced at the reduced VAT rate of 5% instead of the standard 19%, provided the value of the materials does not exceed 50% of the value of the services. Window replacement is material-heavy by nature, so this needs checking rather than assuming. Ask which rate has been quoted and on what basis, and confirm the current conditions with the Tax Department before you rely on the difference.

Energy performance. Minimum energy performance requirements for buildings and building elements are set nationally and administered by the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry. If the windows are part of a larger renovation, or you intend to claim under a support scheme, the glass and frame specification is what those requirements are written against — so have it stated on the quote in the form the scheme asks for.

Guarantees. Ask for the frame, the sealed unit and the workmanship separately, in writing, with who honours each. One line saying the windows are guaranteed tells you nothing about which of the three you will be calling.

Permits. Replacing windows like for like in the existing openings leaves the structure, the layout and the external appearance unchanged, so it does not engage planning control. Enlarging an opening, adding one, or enclosing a veranda does change those things — that belongs with the planning and permits guidance, and with the management committee before anyone orders anything.

Common questions

Is aluminium or uPVC better for a Cyprus house?

Both work here, and the thermal argument is mostly settled by whether the aluminium is thermally broken and what glass is inside, rather than by the material itself. Aluminium takes larger spans and suits the sliding doors Cypriot houses are full of. uPVC is a different look and a different maintenance profile. Near the coast, the coating and the fixings matter more than the choice.

Do I have to replace the shutters as well?

Not always. If the existing boxes and guides are sound and the new frames can be made to suit them, they can often stay. Ask for it both ways on the schedule: keeping them is usually cheaper, replacing them is usually tidier, and that is a choice to make now rather than on fitting day.

How long is the house open during fitting?

Openings are normally done in sequence rather than all at once, and each is out and back the same working day where the frame is ready and the reveal is sound. What extends it is making good, which comes afterwards and involves other trades. Ask for the programme by elevation.

Will new windows make the flat noticeably cooler?

They reduce the heat coming through the glass and cut the draughts around a bad old frame, felt most on a west-facing room in the afternoon. They do not insulate the walls or the roof, and in a Nicosia flat with an uninsulated concrete frame the walls do a lot of the work. If cooling is the reason for the project, treat glazing, shading and insulation as one decision.

Why is one of my three quotes so much lower?

Read the schedule rather than the total. Count the openings, check whether the frame is thermally broken, check the glass build-up, and look for removal, making good, shutters and access. A non-broken profile with clear glazing and making good excluded is genuinely cheaper to supply — it is simply not the same work as the quote next to it.

Window replacement firms in the Nicosia district

7 companies covering this area.

Sources

  1. Tax Department — VAT rates and reduced-rate conditions — retrieved 2026-07-24
  2. Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry — energy performance of buildings — retrieved 2026-07-24
  3. Department of Town Planning and Housing — scope of planning control — retrieved 2026-07-24
  4. Cyprus Statistical Service — construction cost indices — retrieved 2026-07-24

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