As if buying property in a country that is in regular need of financial bail-outs from the EU were not bad enough, falling property prices and tens of thousands of empty new homes would surely make a UK property investor think that things could not get any worse in Cyprus. However, while the points mentioned above puts Cyprus in the same position as Spain in many respects, it appears Cyprus is in a league of its own when it comes to actually owning a property by having legal title deeds.

The Cypriot economy contracted by 6% in 2013, according to the so-called troika of institutions - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - which issued a statement on the 11th of February, after completing a review of Cyprus's bailout, a €10bn aid package agreed in March 2013. The experts said that the Cypriot economy will shrink by another 4.8% this year before it returns to slow growth of 1% in 2015.

But if you own a property in Cyprus you are probably more concerned about title deeds than economic growth. And if you have still not received your title deeds then you are certainly not alone. It is estimated that the owners of 100-130,000 properties in Cyprus, (more than 20% of homeowners), have still not been able to obtain their title deeds.