Supervision of jointly owned apartment buildings is expected to move to district local government organisations (EOAs), after the interior ministry and the organisations reached an understanding on the plan at the House committee on Thursday.

The transfer will depend on the EOAs’ conditions being met and would create a new system for overseeing apartment buildings and their management committees.

Interior ministry local government director Antonis Economides said the meeting had been “very constructive” and that there was a common understanding on the government’s bill.

For the first time, the new system would create a supervisory authority and a register for jointly owned buildings and would give the authorities a formal role in supervising management committees.

The EOAs have asked for several conditions to be met before taking on the responsibility.

These include an online platform where management committees can register and manage their affairs as well as state funding for the initial costs.

Limassol EOA president Yiannis Tsouloftas said the organisations were prepared to take on the role if their conditions were met.

“We are honoured that the state considers the EOAs to be the most appropriate bodies,” he remarked.

He warned that the transfer should not repeat previous cases where responsibilities were given to local authorities without the necessary legal powers or financial support.

The interior ministry said it would pay for the software platform needed for the new system.

The platform will draw information from land registry databases and connect with the ‘Ippodamos’ (Hippodamus) planning system.

A transition period of up to two years is planned, during which the government would cover certain costs and help establish the new service.

Economides said he would convey the EOAs’ request for the state to cover staff costs during the transition.

Once the system is fully operational, he said fees should provide enough revenue to cover its running costs.

The reform has been under discussion for years, for Akel MP Aristos Damianou said his party submitted an 80-page bill on jointly owned buildings in 2019 after identifying serious problems with the existing system.

He said the interior committee had given the ministry another three weeks to respond to the EOAs’ requests, with the aim of completing the discussion during 2026.

Disy MP Nikoletta Constantinou said the new system needed to be “functional, effective, but above all applicable”.

She blamed the current system for having contributed to poorly maintained buildings and unpaid communal fees.

“The biggest problem for communal buildings, beyond the need to maintain the buildings, is the effective collection of debts,” she said.

The proposed reforms would also cover dangerous buildings and the enforcement of building inspections.

Larnaca municipal development authority president Angelos Hadjicharalambous said the bill could improve the management of ageing and deteriorating buildings.

Cyprus has at present 30,000 jointly owned developments containing some 200,000 residential units, according to Land department figures.