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The kitchen questions worth asking before you order anything

What a new kitchen costs in Cyprus, where the money divides between units and fitting, and what to ask before you order anything.

8 min read

Kitchen Renovation in Cyprus: Common Questions — illustrasjonsbilde

Photo: Mikhail Nilov 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

A kitchen replacement in Cyprus runs from roughly €5,000 to €18,000 for the room, median near €9,200, and that figure covers units, worktop, appliances and fitting. Labour-only fitting, where you buy the kitchen yourself and someone else installs it, is quoted separately at around €1,200 to €3,800 for the project. The gap between those two numbers is where most of the confusion about kitchen quotes lives.

The ten questions that come up most

Roughly in the order they arrive once someone starts pricing a kitchen.

  1. How does the total split between the kitchen and the fitting?
  2. Can I keep the layout and only change the units?
  3. When is the worktop measured, and why not before?
  4. How long are we without a kitchen?
  5. How far ahead do I have to order?
  6. Does anybody have to give me permission?
  7. Do I retile the whole wall or only what shows?
  8. What happens to the floor under the units?
  9. Who connects the appliances, and who certifies the electrics?
  10. Why is one quote so much lower than the others?

Short answers

The split. Units, worktop and appliances are the majority of a kitchen budget; installation is a smaller and more predictable slice, quoted around €1,200 to €3,800 for fitting only where the client supplies the kitchen. That tells you where to negotiate. Trading down a range of units moves the total materially; squeezing the fitter moves it very little and costs you the part of the job that is hardest to redo.

Keeping the layout. Same positions for sink, hob and drainage means no new waste runs, no chasing for pipework and no plumbing beyond disconnect and reconnect. Moving the sink is what turns a replacement into a small building job.

When the worktop is measured. After the carcasses are set and levelled, not before. Stone and engineered worktops are templated on the installed units, because a millimetre of error in a drawing becomes a visible gap in granite. That is why there is a pause mid-programme with a temporary board on top. It is normal.

How long without a kitchen. Longer than the fitting alone, because the worktop template sits in the middle of the programme and the stone comes back as a separate delivery. Ask for each stage to be dated before you agree the start. Set the kettle, microwave and fridge up somewhere else on the first day, not once the units are already out.

Ordering ahead. The constraint people underestimate. Made-to-order doors, worktops and appliances carry lead times measured in weeks and are ordered before fitting starts, so the start date is set by the order rather than by the contractor's diary. Order first, then book the trades around the delivery date.

Permission. Replacing a kitchen in the same layout inside your own home is maintenance rather than development, so planning permission does not apply. The municipality does, for a skip on a public road, and so does the building — most blocks set working hours and rules about using the lift for old units and rubble.

Retiling. Doing only the visible field is a legitimate saving and the one people most often regret: change the units later for a different height and the boundary between old tile and bare wall shows. Tiling runs about €18 to €48 per square metre for standard format on a prepared substrate, so the saving is smaller than the future problem.

The floor under the units. Same argument, firmer answer: carry the floor through. Stopping the tile at the plinth line locks you into that exact layout and complicates fitting an integrated dishwasher later.

Appliances and certification. A fitter can set and plumb most things; new circuits, sockets, hob supplies and anything requiring a certificate belong to a certified electrician, priced in the region of €32 to €65 per hour for labour. Keep the certificate with the property papers.

The low quote. Read what is missing before you read the total. Nearly always it is a shorter scope: no removal, no making good, no worktop, appliances excluded.

Where the answer depends

The services behind the units

A kitchen is a room where water, waste, electricity and ventilation all meet inside the depth of a base unit. If the sink stays put, the plumbing is an afternoon. If it moves to an island, you need a waste run with a fall under the floor, and in a flat that means building up or breaking out.

In the 1970s to 1990s apartment blocks that fill Strovolos and similar suburbs, rewiring and replumbing dominate renovation work because the original installations are at the end of their life. A kitchen strip-out is the one moment those walls are open, and a socket count set when those blocks were wired will not run an induction hob, an oven, a dishwasher and a boiling tap. Decide it while the units are out.

The building and the access

Kitchen units arrive as a lorry-load of flat cartons and leave as a skip-load of old chipboard, and both have to reach the door. On the hillside plots around Peyia, steep access roads limit crane and delivery vehicle size, so pallets get broken down and carried — that appears in the rate rather than as a line item. Around Polis Chrysochous, distance from the main contractor base in Paphos adds travel time to most quoted day rates. In a third-floor flat with a small lift, the question is who protects the lift and the common stairs.

Where you are on the island

Cypriot kitchens are built around a climate. Fridges and freezers work harder here, so the ventilation gap behind an integrated appliance is specification rather than detail, and a tall fridge on a west-facing external wall is a choice with a running cost. Hard water marks stainless sinks and scales boiling taps faster than the manufacturer's schedule assumes. And in a great many Cypriot homes the washing machine lives on the covered veranda rather than in the kitchen, which frees a unit run indoors but puts the plumbing and the socket outside — worth confirming rather than assuming when the drawings are done. Our district and town pages record the differences that hold consistently.

The season

Adhesive skins over fast in July and August, which shortens the tiler's working day, and delivery lead times stretch around the August shutdown at European factories and again over Christmas. If the kitchen is part of a wider renovation it goes in after plastering and after the floor, and that ordering — not the fitter's availability — is usually what sets the start date.

What nobody asks but should

Where does the extractor discharge? Recirculating hoods filter grease and return the air to the room, which does nothing for heat or humidity. In many Cypriot flats there is no external route without going through a light well. Establish what is possible before you choose the hood — it cannot be reversed after tiling.

Is the wall flat enough for wall units? Blockwork and render in older houses is rarely true. Fitters allow for it with packers and scribes, and it is site carpentry time at roughly €28 to €55 per hour plus materials. A fitter who checks the walls at survey rather than on delivery day is the one to hire.

What are the exclusions? Removal and disposal of the old kitchen, making good plaster behind it, the electrical certificate, the worktop upstand, appliance connection and end panels are all legitimately separate items. A quote that names them is not padded; one that leaves them silent is incomplete.

Keep an offcut. Ask for a worktop offcut and a spare box of tile. Stone batches vary and tile ranges are discontinued, and a chipped edge years later is a smaller problem when the material still exists.

Who sequences it? A fitter, a plumber, an electrician, a tiler and a worktop supplier all have to arrive in order, and someone has to own that programme. If the quote does not say who, the answer is you.

Common questions

Is it cheaper to buy the kitchen and hire a fitter separately?

Often, and it is common practice here. Labour-only fitting is quoted around €1,200 to €3,800 for the project. What you take on is the risk: a wrong item or a delayed delivery is yours to resolve, and a fitter left waiting will be on another site by the time the parts arrive.

How long is the room actually unusable?

The programme is set by sequencing rather than by hours worked: strip-out, carcasses, then a pause while the worktop is templated and made, then second fix. Moved drainage or new circuits runs longer, and the extra is fabrication and waiting time rather than labour. Ask the contractor to date each stage rather than quote you a single figure.

Do I need to change the electrics?

If the property still runs on its original installation, almost certainly. Modern kitchen loads are nothing like those the older Cypriot blocks were wired for, and the moment to deal with it is while the units are out and the walls are open.

Can a kitchen be fitted in an occupied house?

Yes, and most are. Move the fridge, kettle and microwave to another room before day one, agree working hours with the household and the building, and accept that dust from strip-out and chasing reaches further than the kitchen door.

Who should I be asking for quotes?

Kitchen contractors working in your district and on the type of property you have — apartment fitting and detached-house fitting run into different constraints. Our kitchen renovation section sets out what the job involves, the project index covers the trades around it, and the district listings show who works in your area rather than quoting a travel premium to reach it.

Kitchen contractors in Cyprus

8 companies covering this area.

Sources

  1. Cyprus Statistical Service — construction cost indices — retrieved 2026-07-28
  2. Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) — registered engineers and technical practice — retrieved 2026-07-28

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