Abu Dhabi Investment in Cyprus: Projects, Rules and Status (2026)

Abu Dhabi Investment in Cyprus: Projects, Rules and Status (2026)

This guide is current to 8 November 2026. It describes Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus as it appears in official statements, company filings and dated press reports: which Abu Dhabi entities have publicly expressed interest, which Cypriot projects were named, and what has happened to each project since January 2024, when the Cypriot president met a delegation from TAQA, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, to discuss infrastructure that the company could consider.

The page covers the Great Sea Interconnector electricity cable, the Vasilikos LNG terminal, Larnaca airport, offshore gas, the agreements signed between the two governments, trade figures, and the tax, residence and property rules that apply to a foreign investor in the area administered by the Republic of Cyprus. Every figure carries a source and a date. The closing sections explain how to read an announcement of “interest in investing” against the stages a project passes through before money is committed.

Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus at a glance (8 November 2026)

The public record shows three different layers, and keeping them apart makes the headlines easier to read. The first layer is stated interest: TAQA and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have been described by Cypriot ministers as interested in specific sectors. The second layer is government-to-government frameworks: a business council, an energy partnership memorandum and a joint action plan. The third layer is executed transactions, meaning signed share purchase agreements, awarded contracts and closed financing. For the Great Sea Interconnector, the most recent executed transaction on record is the August 2026 agreement under which the French infrastructure investor Meridiam became majority shareholder, according to a filing by ADMIE (IPTO) Holding dated 6 August 2026. That filing names Meridiam and IPTO S.A. as shareholders and does not name any Abu Dhabi entity.

The table below places each project named in the January 2024 discussions next to its position on 8 November 2026.

For readers who want the wider Cyprus context before the project detail, the site’s Cyprus section and the Cyprus economic forecast page cover growth, inflation and the property market with dated figures.

How UAE and Cyprus official ties developed from 2022 to 2026

Investment announcements between the two countries sit inside a diplomatic framework that has been built in steps. In December 2025 the UAE president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, made what the UAE foreign ministry’s joint statement calls the first visit to Cyprus by a UAE head of state. Cyprus Mail reported on 14 December 2025 that he credited the 2022 strategic cooperation agreement with strengthening ties in energy, industry, trade, investment, tourism and education, and that the two presidents agreed to develop a joint action plan.

The joint statement itself is notable for what it contains and what it leaves out. It refers to a UAE-Cyprus Business Roundtable, to the Second Investment and Finance Forum held in Abu Dhabi on 11 December 2025, and to joint projects in energy, including renewable energy. It lists communications connectivity, defense, major infrastructure, shipping and maritime cooperation as areas of cooperation. It contains no monetary figures, no trade volumes and no company names. The same is true of the 25 January 2026 announcement from the UAE foreign ministry about the Cypriot foreign minister’s visit to Abu Dhabi, which describes a UAE-Cyprus Energy Partnership Agreement as a framework for energy security, infrastructure development and sustainable energy solutions, and a Joint Action Plan with four priority areas: political consultations, economic and investment cooperation, energy and innovation, and institutional collaboration.

Two features of this record matter for anyone reading the headlines. First, none of the documents is an investment treaty or a free trade agreement. Trade agreements are negotiated by the European Union on behalf of its members, and the EU-UAE negotiations were launched by the leaders on 10 April 2025 to cover goods, services and investment, according to the European Commission. Second, Cyprus held the presidency of the Council of the EU from 1 January 2026, which both sides described in December 2025 as a chance to strengthen EU-Gulf relations.

What TAQA and ADNOC have said about Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus

The earliest dated record is 26 January 2024. Cyprus Mail reported that President Nikos Christodoulides met the UAE deputy foreign minister and a delegation from TAQA, whose group chief executive was named in the photo caption. The presidential press office said no agreement had been reached but that “there is interest”, and that the energy ministry would review within a month a list of projects TAQA could choose to invest in. On 2 February 2024 the energy minister of the time, George Papanastasiou, said TAQA had officially stated its interest in entering the Great Sea Interconnector project, while a Cabinet decision on Cyprus’s own participation was still pending.

The next data point is 27 February 2025. Speaking at the Investopia conference in Abu Dhabi, the same minister said TAQA was interested in investing in and supporting the electricity connection project, which Cyprus Mail put at a cost of €1.9 billion. The report adds that TAQA’s main business is power generation, water desalination and oil and gas production and storage. On the sidelines the minister met the UAE economy minister, and the two sides discussed a proposal for Cyprus to host a later Investopia, with shipping, energy, water management and desalination as possible themes.

ADNOC appears in a separate thread. On 5 November 2024, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, the minister said ADNOC had expressed interest in the eastern Mediterranean, mainly in acquiring “de-risked” assets, and might join a future licensing round. He said ADNOC had made no formal request or proposal to the government, and ADNOC declined to comment to Reuters. In February 2025 he said a new exploration licensing round involving ADNOC was not ruled out.

These are the statements on record. They describe interest, not a committed investment. The ADMIE Holding filing of 6 August 2026 describes the shareholders of the interconnector company as Meridiam, which entered as majority shareholder, and IPTO S.A., which remains a strategic shareholder. In the filings and reports reviewed for this page, no signed agreement for a TAQA or ADNOC equity stake in a Cypriot project is recorded.

The Great Sea Interconnector: what it is and what it costs

The Great Sea Interconnector, previously known as the EuroAsia Interconnector, is a planned high-voltage direct current subsea cable that would link the Cypriot grid to the Greek grid through Crete, with a later extension to Israel. Cyprus is not connected to any other national grid, which is why the project is described by EU and Cypriot officials as ending the island’s electricity isolation. Eurostat reported a net energy import dependency of 88% for Cyprus in 2024, against an EU average of 57%, a gap of 31 percentage points; only Malta (98%) and Luxembourg (91%) were higher. The site’s explainer on Cyprus fossil fuel dependence gives the longer background.

The figures that circulate about the project differ by source and by year, so it helps to separate them. The original EU grant decision of January 2022 awarded €657 million under the Connecting Europe Facility to the Cyprus-Crete section, which Cyprus Mail described at the time as over €1.5 billion in total cost for that portion. A Balkan Green Energy News report on the same decision, citing the Commission, gave 1 GW capacity with an option to double, 898 km for the Cyprus-Crete cable and 1,208 km for the full interconnector. The €1.9 billion figure is the cost quoted in 2025 and 2026 press reports, and Cyprus’s electricity regulator told MPs on 24 October 2026 that he questioned whether that cost is still realistic.

Some arithmetic helps put the grant in proportion. The €657 million grant equals about 35% of the reported €1.9 billion project cost (657 divided by 1,900 is 0.346). The five payments of €25 million that Cyprus agreed with IPTO total €125 million (5 multiplied by 25). The two amounts are not additive in any simple way, because the cost split between grant, shareholders, lenders and electricity consumers has not been fixed. On 13 September 2026 the Cypriot energy minister, Michalis Damianos, said government calculations show the project will raise the price of a kilowatt hour of electricity and that, if costs rise significantly, additional European or other funding should be sought.

A note on the old headline numbers: reports in early 2024 spoke of a cable of 900 km and 2,000 MW. The 900 km corresponds to the Cyprus-Crete section (898 km). The 1 GW initial capacity, with an option to double to 2 GW, is the more precise statement of the capacity in the Commission-based report.

Who owns the Great Sea Interconnector now

Ownership has changed twice since the project was first proposed. The original promoter was EuroAsia Interconnector Ltd. Cyprus Mail reported on 5 August 2026 that Greece’s transmission operator, IPTO (known in Cypriot press as Admie), took the project over from EuroAsia in October 2023 and became its majority shareholder, a position it held for almost three years.

On 5 August 2026, according to the ADMIE (IPTO) Holding notification dated 6 August 2026, agreements were signed for the entry of the international infrastructure investment firm Meridiam as majority shareholder of the special purpose vehicle Great Sea Interconnector, and a separate agreement between that company, IPTO S.A. and the cable manufacturer Nexans for the required seabed surveys. The filing states that IPTO S.A. remains a strategic shareholder, retains technical leadership through construction and takes responsibility for operating the interconnection once it is commissioned. ADMIE Holding holds 51% of IPTO S.A. and says it will report further material developments under the applicable rules. The Greek prime minister’s office had said on the day of signing that Meridiam’s stake would be more than 50%, as reported by Politis.

Cyprus has not yet decided whether to take a share in the company. On 7 August 2026 Euronews reported the energy minister as saying that Cyprus was still awaiting a due diligence study by the European Investment Bank and that the decision depends on it. On 13 September 2026 he added that participation “is not an end in itself”, because a minority stake would not guarantee a substantive say in decisions, and that Meridiam’s entry limits the government’s concerns about geopolitical risk. The EIB request itself was made jointly by Greece and Cyprus in April 2026 and, according to Kathimerini-sourced reporting carried by Kiprinform on 20 April 2026, was for a study of the project’s future rather than for additional funding.

Surveys, completion dates and open questions on the cable

Construction cannot start until the final route is fixed by seabed surveys. On 24 October 2026 Cyprus Mail reported the electricity regulator as saying that about 60% of the surveys are complete and that the remaining 40% would take about six months. The remaining work lies in waters where Greece and Turkey hold different positions on maritime jurisdiction: Greece and Cyprus say islands generate a full exclusive economic zone under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, while Turkey, which is not a party to that convention, disagrees, according to Cyprus Mail on 18 August 2026.

The procedural step that had been awaited was issued on 6 November 2026. GreekReporter reported that Greece issued a NAVTEX, a maritime navigation warning, after the foreign ministry said all required authorization procedures were complete and the survey vessel requested the notice. The French-flagged research vessel Abeille Marengo had been docked at Heraklion since 27 October and was expected to begin work on the weekend of 7 and 8 November, starting in Greek territorial waters. Cyprus Mail reported on 29 October 2026 that Turkey’s foreign minister had said in the preceding week that Turkey would not object if Greece and France gave advance written notice with coordinates before the surveys begin. How Ankara responds in practice was described as uncertain, and the report points to a July 2024 confrontation near Kasos involving an Italian survey vessel.

Completion dates have moved repeatedly, and different officials give different estimates. In 2022 the project was expected to bring power to Cyprus by mid-2026, according to Balkan Green Energy News. By October 2026 the regulator’s estimate had moved from January 2030 to January 2031, and the energy minister on 13 September 2026 spoke of the end of 2031 with no firm timetable. Nexans’ chief executive said on its third-quarter earnings call, as reported on 24 October 2026, that production for the project may not resume until 2028 and that discussions remain at political and diplomatic level.

The Cypriot government’s stated position is to support the project while watching its cost. On 24 October 2026 the energy minister told MPs that Cyprus would pay its €25 million only after tangible progress, and Cyprus Mail quoted him as saying that if electricity does not come to Cyprus, the government will not pay. The Greek energy minister, Stavros Papastavrou, said on 29 October 2026 that the project was “proceeding with a plan”.

The Vasilikos LNG terminal

The liquefied natural gas import terminal at Vasilikos is a state-owned project, and it is the second item named in the 2024 discussions. Its recent record is documented in Cyprus Mail’s report of 19 October 2026 on the energy minister’s briefing to MPs. The contract was awarded in December 2019 and work began a year later. The original completion deadline was July 2022. Four later delivery timetables, September 2022, July 2023, October 2023 and July 2024, were not met. The floating storage and regasification unit, called Prometheas, was reported on that date as still moored in Malaysia.

The minister said the government expects the terminal to be running by 2030, with imported gas used for power generation by then, and that it aims to award the tender for the remaining works before summer 2027 so that work can start in the second half of 2027. He also said that current plans are to use offshore reserves for commercial export rather than domestic consumption. The 2027 budget presentation put the energy ministry’s own budget at €83.8 million, a 42% fall from 2026, which the minister attributed mainly to changes in Recovery and Resilience Facility financing and to supplementary appropriations in the 2026 budget.

No Abu Dhabi entity is named in the October 2026 briefing as a participant. In the 2024 discussions the terminal was listed among projects that TAQA could examine, so the accurate current description of this strand of Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus is that the project is publicly owned and has a government-set timetable and an open tender for the remaining works.

Larnaca airport and other infrastructure named in 2024

The “new airport in Larnaca” mentioned in early 2024 reporting is better understood today as an expansion of the existing airport. Larnaca and Paphos airports are operated by Hermes Airports under a concession signed in 2006. On 23 December 2024 the government and Hermes agreed to extend the concession to 2033, with a €30 million compensation payment and a €20 million state loan to Hermes and the withdrawal of pending claims, according to Cyprus Mail. On 21 March 2025 Hermes announced that financing for Phase 2 was concluded, with investment of over €170 million, split between €95 million for Larnaca and €75 million for Paphos. The Larnaca works cover about 20,000 square metres, with a new annex of gates, more baggage belts, a new passport control and security area, larger commercial areas and more aircraft parking. The Larnaca target capacity is stated as roughly 12 million passengers a year (12.4 million in one passage of the report) and Paphos 5 million.

On 12 May 2026, marking 20 years of the concession, Hermes said investments exceeding €640 million had created the two airports, that combined passengers rose from 6.7 million in 2006 to 13.7 million in 2025, and that concession fees paid to the state exceeded €715 million. Simple arithmetic puts that growth at about 104% (13.7 divided by 6.7 is 2.04) and the average fee at roughly €35.75 million a year (715 divided by 20). If the Phase 2 capacity targets for Larnaca (12.4 million) and Paphos (5 million) are met, the combined 17.4 million would leave 3.7 million passengers of headroom over the 2025 traffic of 13.7 million. The December 2024 report gave the same 17.4 million figure and described it as 43% above the 12.2 million passengers expected in 2024.

Airport capacity ties into the visitor numbers covered on the site’s Cyprus tourism trends page, and construction activity is tracked on the Cyprus building permits page. The Larnaca expansion is financed by the concessionaire and no Abu Dhabi investor is named in the Hermes announcements, so this strand of Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus remains a topic of discussion rather than a transaction.

Gas, storage and the wider energy picture in Cyprus

The energy projects that Abu Dhabi companies have commented on sit within a larger set of changes. Offshore, ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy signed a declaration with the government at the presidential palace on 30 June 2026 stating that the Pegasus and Glaucus fields in Block 10 are marketable. According to Cyprus Mail, the next steps are initial engineering and design, then a final investment decision expected in 2029, with production targeted for 2033, and a Pegasus appraisal drilling programme planned for the end of 2026. Export by pipeline to Egypt was described as the prevailing idea, with floating and onshore LNG options also under review. On 13 September 2026 the energy minister said a fourth licensing round for the exclusive economic zone is expected by the end of next year, which places it at the end of 2027.

Onshore, the grid faces surplus solar output at certain hours. Cyprus Mail reported on 23 June 2026 that the first contracts for large-scale batteries had been signed: 120 MW of storage managed by the transmission system operator, valued at €50 million, at substations in Nicosia, Paphos and Larnaca, with delivery expected in January 2027 and operation by summer 2027. The same report gives curtailed renewable energy of about 167 GWh in 2024 and 306 GWh in 2025, an increase of about 83% (306 divided by 167 is 1.83). For readers following electricity demand, the site’s pages on electric vehicles in Cyprus and the Cyprus car market show how charging demand is developing.

The macroeconomic setting is described in the European Commission’s Spring 2026 forecast, published on 21 May 2026. It puts Cypriot GDP growth at 3.8% in 2025, 2.3% in 2026 and 2.7% in 2027, and inflation at 0.8% in 2025, rising to 3.6% in 2026 because of higher energy prices linked to the situation in the Middle East, then 2.2% in 2027. It notes that investment excluding ship registrations grew in 2025 as construction picked up, is projected to slow and then recover in 2026, and that rising costs are delaying some investment decisions. The Gulf side of the picture, including how Gulf energy groups are diversifying, is covered in the site’s Gulf diversification explainer.

UAE and Cyprus trade, treaties and trade agreements

Bilateral trade is small in absolute terms. Speaking in Nicosia on 13 December 2025, the UAE foreign trade minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said non-oil trade between the two countries reached $176 million in the first nine months of 2025, up nearly 40% on the same period of 2024, according to CBN. A growth rate of 40% would imply about $126 million in January to September 2024 (176 divided by 1.40), so the earlier-year figure was roughly that or slightly higher. The memorandum signed the same weekend by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Invest Cyprus and the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry provides for the UAE-Cyprus Joint Business and Investment Council.

The formal legal instruments between the two countries are limited in number. The UAE foreign ministry documents of 14 December 2025 and 25 January 2026 refer to a joint action plan and an energy partnership, and neither refers to a free trade or bilateral investment agreement. The tax instrument that does exist is the agreement for the avoidance of double taxation, which Cyprus lists in its OECD Multilateral Instrument position as signed on 27 February 2011 and in force from 17 March 2013.

For comparison of the two tax systems, the UAE Ministry of Finance states that corporate tax applies at 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 ($102,110 at 3.6725) and 9% above that threshold, for financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023, under Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022. The site’s explainers on taxes in Dubai and tax on Dubai property for foreign owners cover the UAE side in detail.

Tax rules that apply to Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus

A company or individual from the UAE investing in Cyprus is treated under the same tax rules as other foreign investors. There is no separate regime for Abu Dhabi investors; the relevant variable is the structure used and the tax residence of the entities and people involved. The most important recent change is the 2025 tax reform. The House of Representatives approved the bills on 22 December 2025, they were published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025, and most changes took effect on 1 January 2026, according to the EY Global Tax Alert of 7 January 2026.

The corporate income tax rate rose from 12.5% to 15% for the 2026 tax year. Tax losses can now be carried forward for seven years instead of five, stamp duty was abolished, and the indirect share disposal threshold for capital gains tax dropped from 50% to 20%. Invest Cyprus, the government’s investment promotion agency, describes the rate as competitive and lists, in its February 2026 tax guide, a double tax treaty network covering 68 countries, a notional interest deduction on new equity, an intellectual property regime, a tonnage tax for shipping companies and the absence of withholding tax on outgoing dividend, interest and royalty payments under domestic law, except for payments to entities on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Worked examples show how the published rules combine. At a taxable profit of €1,000,000, the 15% rate gives €150,000 of corporate tax, which is €25,000 more than the €125,000 that 12.5% would have produced. Under the IP regime, if all of that profit were qualifying profit, the 80% deduction leaves €200,000 taxable, and 15% of €200,000 is €30,000, an effective rate of 3%. For the notional interest deduction, take new equity of €2,000,000 and a hypothetical reference rate of 8% (an illustration, not a published rate): the deduction would be €160,000, limited to 80% of the taxable profit generated by the new capital. For comparison, a UAE taxable income of AED 3,675,000 would be taxed at 9% on the amount above AED 375,000, which is AED 3,300,000, giving AED 297,000 ($80,871 at 3.6725).

On the personal side, Invest Cyprus states that a Cyprus tax resident who is not domiciled in Cyprus is exempt from the special defence contribution on dividends, interest and rental income, and that tax residency follows a 183-day rule and a 60-day rule with defined conditions. Domicile status ends if the person is Cyprus tax resident for at least 17 of the previous 20 years. The 2025 reform also changed defence contribution rules for domiciled individuals; EY reports that the rate on certain dividends fell from 17% to 5% and that the deemed distribution rule was abolished for profits from 2026. Rules differ by person, so the published texts are the reference.

Residence, property and company rules for non-EU investors

The rules below apply in the area administered by the Republic of Cyprus. Three separate topics are often combined in promotional material, and the official pages treat them separately.

The first is the investor immigration permit. The Civil Registry and Migration Department’s page for investors sets out the criteria for applicants from third countries, including a minimum investment of €300,000 in one of the listed categories (for example a house or apartment bought in a first sale from a development company, with VAT, other real estate such as offices or shops, shares of a Cyprus company, or units in a collective investment fund), evidence that the funds came from abroad and were not borrowed domestically, and registration of the title deed or sale contract at the Department of Lands and Surveys. Each adult child included in the application multiplies the investment amount. The permit is a residence permit decided under those conditions, not an automatic result of buying.

The second is permission to buy property. Under the Immovable Property Acquisition (Aliens) Law, a person who is not a citizen of an EU member state generally needs a permit before acquiring immovable property. According to the Ministry of Interior’s purchasing-property page, the application is filed on form COMM 145 with the District Administration of the district where the property is located, no fee is payable, and processing takes two to three weeks. This is a different procedure from the investor permit and has different criteria.

The third is how companies and funds are taxed, covered in the previous section. For the property market itself, the site publishes dated data on Cyprus real estate market statistics, Cyprus real estate and the demand drivers behind higher-priced property in Cyprus. A buyer who has not yet decided between the two parts of the island can compare the legal frameworks on the North Cyprus and South Cyprus property page, which compares rules, costs and titles on the two sides of the island.

How to read an announcement of Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus

A headline that an Abu Dhabi company “will invest” in a Cypriot project can describe any of several different stages. The stages below are generic project-finance steps, and the table shows where each documented item in this page sits. The distinction matters because the gap between a stated interest and a closed financing can be years long. The Great Sea Interconnector shows this: an EU grant was approved in January 2022, a new developer took over in October 2023, interest from TAQA was stated in January 2024 and February 2025, a majority shareholder signed in August 2026, and the survey notice was issued in November 2026.

A practical checklist follows from the table. First, identify the document type: a speech, a press release, a memorandum, a stock exchange filing or a signed contract. Second, check whether it names the parties and the amount. Third, check the date against later documents, since an owner or timetable stated in 2024 may have changed. Fourth, see whether a primary source such as a company filing, a government gazette or a regulator’s decision confirms it. Applying this to the 2024 headline, the parties that appear in executed documents for the interconnector as of November 2026 are Meridiam, IPTO S.A. and Nexans, and the Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus recorded for the interconnector remains at stage 1 in the public record.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Abu Dhabi invested in Cyprus?

As of 8 November 2026, the public record on Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus consists of stated interest by TAQA (January 2024, February 2024, February 2025) and ADNOC (November 2024) and of government-level agreements signed in December 2025 and January 2026. The ADMIE Holding filing of 6 August 2026 names Meridiam and IPTO S.A. as the interconnector company’s shareholders. No signed Abu Dhabi equity stake in a Cypriot project appears in the filings and reports reviewed.

What is the Great Sea Interconnector and where does it stand?

It is the main project through which Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus has been discussed: a planned subsea electricity cable between Crete and Cyprus, with a later extension to Israel. Meridiam became majority shareholder on 5 August 2026, Greece issued a NAVTEX for seabed surveys on 6 November 2026, and the Cypriot regulator’s completion estimate is January 2031.

How much of the interconnector cost is covered by the EU?

The EU awarded a €657 million Connecting Europe Facility grant in January 2022 for the Cyprus-Crete section. Against the reported total cost of €1.9 billion, that is about 35%. The cost split among the remaining parties has not been fixed, and a European Investment Bank due diligence study is expected before the end of 2026, according to the Cypriot energy minister.

Is there a free trade or investment agreement between the UAE and Cyprus?

The official documents on Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus from December 2025 and January 2026 describe a joint action plan, an energy partnership and a business council. A double taxation agreement signed on 27 February 2011 is in force. A free trade agreement would be negotiated at EU level, and EU-UAE negotiations were launched on 10 April 2025.

What is the corporate tax rate in Cyprus in 2026?

The rate is 15% from the 2026 tax year, up from 12.5%, under the reform approved on 22 December 2025. For Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus through a Cypriot company, that rate applies to taxable profit after exemptions and deductions such as the notional interest deduction and the intellectual property regime.

Is the Larnaca airport project a new airport?

No. Hermes Airports, the concessionaire since 2006, is carrying out a Phase 2 extension of more than €170 million across Larnaca (€95 million) and Paphos (€75 million), with a new gate annex at Larnaca. The concession was extended to 2033 on 23 December 2024.

When will the Vasilikos LNG terminal operate?

The energy minister told MPs on 19 October 2026 that the government expects it to be running by 2030, with the tender for remaining works to be awarded before summer 2027. Earlier timetables from September 2022 to July 2024 were not met.

Can a non-EU investor buy property in the area administered by the Republic of Cyprus?

Generally a permit is needed under the Immovable Property Acquisition (Aliens) Law. The Ministry of Interior says the application is made on form COMM 145 to the District Administration, with no fee and a processing time of two to three weeks. The investor immigration permit, which has a €300,000 minimum investment, is a separate procedure.

What did the UAE and Cyprus agree in 2025 and 2026?

They agreed a business council memorandum (13 December 2025), a joint statement during the UAE president’s visit (14 December 2025), an energy partnership memorandum (23 January 2026) and a joint action plan, reported in May 2026 as covering 2026 to 2030 across trade, investment, energy, defense, shipping, infrastructure, tourism, culture and education. These documents state areas of cooperation rather than investment amounts.

How large is trade between the UAE and Cyprus?

The UAE foreign trade minister said on 13 December 2025 that non-oil trade reached $176 million in the first nine months of 2025, up nearly 40% on a year earlier. For context on Abu Dhabi investment in Cyprus, that is a trade figure, not an investment stock figure, and the sources reviewed give no UAE investment total.

Last checked: 8 November 2026. Sources: ADMIE (IPTO) Holding notification, 6 Aug 2026; UAE foreign ministry joint statement, 14 Dec 2025; UAE foreign ministry, 25 Jan 2026; UAE foreign ministry, 23 Jan 2026; Cyprus Mail, 14 Dec 2025; Cyprus Mail, 26 Jan 2024; Cyprus Mail, 2 Feb 2024; Cyprus Mail, 27 Feb 2025; Cyprus Mail, 5 Nov 2024; Cyprus Mail, 5 Aug 2026; Politis, 5 Aug 2026; Euronews, 7 Aug 2026; Cyprus Mail, 18 Aug 2026; Cyprus Mail, 13 Sep 2026; Cyprus Mail, 24 Oct 2026; Cyprus Mail, 29 Oct 2026; GreekReporter, 6 Nov 2026; Kiprinform, 20 Apr 2026; Cyprus Mail, 11 May 2026; Cyprus Mail, 27 Jan 2022; Balkan Green Energy News, 28 Jan 2022; Cyprus Mail, 19 Oct 2026; Cyprus Mail, 23 Dec 2024; Cyprus Mail, 21 Mar 2025; Cyprus Mail, 12 May 2026; Cyprus Mail, 30 Jun 2026; Cyprus Mail, 23 Jun 2026; Cyprus Mail, 7 May 2026; CBN, 15 Dec 2025; European Commission, 10 Apr 2025; European Commission Spring 2026 forecast; Eurostat, 18 Mar 2026; Invest Cyprus tax guide, Feb 2026; EY Global Tax Alert, 7 Jan 2026; Cyprus Mail, 2 Jan 2026; OECD MLI position of Cyprus; UAE Ministry of Finance, corporate tax threshold; Civil Registry and Migration Department, investor permits; Ministry of Interior, purchasing property.