A technical team from the Nicosia District Organisation for the Administration of Local Affairs (EOA) inspected around 200 potentially dangerous buildings in the walled city's Omeriye area on Monday, as part of a broader island-wide effort to assess and address structural safety risks across Cyprus.
Scale of the problem
The inspection forms part of an ongoing assessment programme that has placed the total number of dangerous buildings in the Nicosia district at 1,466, according to Cyprus Mail. When the EOA assumed responsibility for the dangerous buildings portfolio from municipal councils and the district administration in April 2025, it inherited 1,198 existing cases. A further 268 cases have been added since then.
Of the buildings currently classified as dangerous, four require immediate evacuation. The remaining properties are considered to need repairs or maintenance but do not pose an immediate threat to their occupants.
Authorities attribute the rise in dangerous building cases primarily to a lack of maintenance by property owners, compounded by structural ageing. A significant proportion of Cyprus's building stock was constructed before modern safety regulations came into force, making the scale of the challenge particularly acute in older urban areas such as Nicosia's walled city.
Enforcement and funding concerns
Nicosia district EOA chairman Constantinos Yiorkadjis underlined the organisation's focus on rapid action where risks are most serious.
"Our main priority is finding ways to enforce legislation more quickly, depending on the severity of the problems identified in each building,"he said.
A €2 million national fund has been announced to tackle dangerous buildings across Cyprus. The Nicosia EOA drew €150,000 from its national allocation last year, but Yiorkadjis raised concerns about access to future disbursements.
"The process for receiving the money required to support these dangerous buildings has not yet been explained,"he said.
Authorities also acknowledged that the absence of a centralised tracking system continues to hamper precise monitoring of the number of dangerous structures across the island.
Context: A deadly precedent
The urgency of the programme is underscored by a fatal building collapse in Limassol's Yermasoyia area, which claimed two lives and heightened public and government pressure on authorities to accelerate inspections and enforcement nationwide. Monday's Omeriye survey represents one of the most concentrated single-day assessment exercises carried out under the current programme.
