The government is to allocate around 570 plots of land to be built upon by young families, the interior ministry said on Sunday, with minister Constantinos Ioannou saying that the project will allow people to “acquire land and build their own homes at a significantly reduced cost”.

The ministry said the plots, which will be located in various locations across the island, will be sold for 25 per cent of their market value, thereby “creating a substantial opportunity for young and low- or middle-income families to acquire land and build their own residence”.

Ioannou, meanwhile, said that “access to housing is a fundamental prerequisite for social cohesion and the wellbeing of our fellow people”, and that as such, “we are utilising state land … to meet the housing needs of young families”.

“At the same time, the scheme has a second objective. We are strengthening rural communities, particularly in mountainous and remote areas, contributing to their revitalisation by attracting new residents,” he said.

Those eligible for the scheme are Cypriot nationals, who are either couples with or without children or single-parent families, with at least one person from each couple required to be aged less than 45 years old at the time the application is submitted, and the couple’s current place of residence required to be fewer than 15 kilometres from the plot they wish to buy.

Each applicant family’s salary must not exceed €45,000 for childless couples or single-parent households, €50,000 for families of three, €55,000 for families of four, and €65,000 for families of five or more.

The ministry said that “the allocation of plots will be made on a priority basis, to indigenous people of a village who reside permanently in it, to displaced persons who reside permanently in the village, internal emigrants who wish to return to their village, repatriates or emigrants who meet special conditions, and permanent residents of neighbouring villages”.

Should multiple people apply for the same plot, it said, “priority will be given first to large families”.