Short-term rentals in Cyprus in 2026: registration, tax and fines

Using a Paphos home for part of the year and letting it to holidaymakers for the rest is allowed. It is a different regime from a tenancy, though: its own registration, tax treatment and VAT, and since May 2026 new duties for the booking platforms. Below are the rules as at 25 September 2026, from the laws themselves and the Tax Department's guidance.

What a Paphos apartment can earn is covered in our article on investment property in Cyprus. This page covers what you must do to let legally and how the income is taxed. Everything here is the Republic of Cyprus; the north runs under different rules.

Who has to register

Holiday lets fall under the law on hotels and tourist accommodation, 34(I)/2019. Amending Law 9(I)/2020 added a part on "self-catering accommodation": a villa, house or apartment let as a whole, not by the room. Such a property may be advertised or let only once it is on the Deputy Ministry of Tourism's register and has a registration number. That number goes on every listing and every related transaction.

The channel makes no difference: the law requires the number on any advertising, and Tax Department Circular 10/2023 covers letting through Airbnb, Booking, websites "or otherwise".

The application can come from the owner, a person with the right to use the property, or an operator acting with the owner's consent. The transitional period for properties let before the 2020 amendment is over. An ordinary year-long tenancy does not go on this register — long lets have their own rules, compared at the end of this page.

How to register: documents and timings

You apply online, through the Deputy Ministry of Tourism's service on gov.cy. The documents were set by amending Law 11(I)/2023:

1. 01The Deputy Ministry's application and declaration form, with the fee. Both a first registration and a renewal cost €222, according to the Deputy Ministry's notice of 15 May 2024.
2. 02A tax identification number for the owner or the manager — and a VAT number if you are obliged to have one.
3. 03A recent electricity bill for the property itself. With no separate meter, a certificate from the local authority that the property is a separate, self-contained unit, plus the bill for the building.
4. 04The title deed, or the building permit, or a planning permit for residential use.
5. 05All-risks insurance covering fire and third-party liability.
6. 06For a company, registration with the Registrar of Companies; for a user, the owner's authorisation.

The Deputy Ministry has up to two months to decide, then issues the number and a special sign. The first registration lasts 3 years. Renewal is applied for in the last 3 months before expiry and lasts 5 years. Miss that window and you start again with the full set of documents — and the new registration lasts only 3 years.

Note item 4: you do not need the title deed to register, a building permit is enough. Given how long title deeds have taken in Cyprus, that matters — see our article on title deeds.

What the property has to have

The minimum standards sit in the Fifth Schedule to the law. For apartments they apply "proportionately" to those written for villas and houses:

• ·a sitting area, a bedroom (a studio will do), a kitchen and a bathroom; a kitchenette in the living room needs an extractor hood;
• ·air conditioning for both cooling and heating;
• ·hot and cold water in every room, connection to the drains;
• ·lighting in every room, on the verandas and in any garden seating area, and sockets in every enclosed room;
• ·permanent construction with a building or planning permit;
• ·in a house, no more than 10 guests (the figure given for 4–5 bedrooms), and a second full bathroom once there are more than three bedrooms;
• ·the application states whether the property is suitable for guests with reduced mobility.

Two prohibitions stand apart: no letting while the property or the ground around it is unfinished or being rebuilt so it cannot be used on its own, and no false or misleading information about it.

For a new-build buyer that sets the order: register after handover and after the electricity is connected. How handover works off-plan is in buying off-plan in Cyprus.

Fines for letting without a number

Through the courts. Letting without registration, or after it has been revoked, is a criminal offence: up to a year in prison, a fine of up to €5,000, or both. Carry on after conviction and it is up to €200 more for each day. The court can order the letting to stop; ignoring that order carries up to two years in prison, a fine of up to €5,000, or both.

Without a court. The Deputy Ministry of Tourism can itself impose an administrative fine of €2,000, or up to €4,000 for a repeated or continuing breach, after giving you 3 to 21 days to make written representations.

Its inspectors may check a property at any time. A registration can be revoked if it was obtained on false information, if required documents such as the insurance are found to have lapsed, or for repeated breaches.

Since 20 May 2026: what the platforms report

The tourism side. Law 184(I)/2025, in force since 20 May 2026, gives effect in Cyprus to EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term rental data and makes the Deputy Ministry of Tourism the competent authority. The host gives the platform the registration number; the platform must not take a listing without one and must show it. For properties in areas where the authorities have requested data, the platform reports each month the nights let and the number of guests, with the address, registration number and listing URL. A listing with no number, an invalid one or someone else's can be ordered down. Under Cypriot law, a platform that fails to report or to obey such an order faces up to €20,000, two years in prison or both, and up to €1,000 a day for a repeated breach.

The tax side. Under the EU rules known as DAC7 (Law 105(I)/2023 in Cyprus), platforms report to the tax authority of their own EU country by 31 January each year, host by host: the property's address, payouts per quarter, the number of stays, their fees and, where known, the days let. Data on Cypriot properties is passed on to the Cyprus Tax Department, and your return will be set against it.

Tax on the income

On 13 September 2023 the Tax Department issued Circular 10/2023 on income through Airbnb, Booking and similar channels. Where all three conditions are met:

1. 01the property is on the Deputy Ministry of Tourism's register, or should be;
2. 02the owner is registered for VAT and charges 9% on the income — where the law obliges them to register;
3. 03the letting is short term, repeated and usually to different people each time,

the income counts as business income. Three things follow.

• ·Tax is on the profit. Gross takings less expenses incurred wholly and exclusively to earn them, capital allowances and loan interest. The flat 20% deduction for long lets does not apply: actual expenses come off instead, so keep receipts for cleaning, utilities, repairs and the manager's invoices from the first booking.
• ·No defence contribution. On long lets it was abolished from 1 January 2026 as well.
• ·GESY on the profit, not the takings. An individual owner pays the health contribution directly, every six months; neither the guest nor a manager withholds it.

The profit is taxed on the normal bands: from 2026 the first €22,000 of annual income is tax-free, then rates run from 20% to 35%. Your whole income for the year counts, not the rent alone — the bands are in Cyprus tax in 2026. If you are tax resident in the UK, have your adviser look at both countries before the first season.

The owner pays the tax even where the property is registered in a relative's or a manager's name.

VAT on holiday lets: 9% and the €15,600 threshold

An owner who is obliged to be registered for VAT charges 9% on the accommodation. Registration is compulsory once taxable turnover in the previous 12 months exceeds €15,600, or is expected to exceed €15,600 in the next 30 days. You need a tax number first (applied for online only, through the Tax For All portal), then the VAT application on form T.D. 1101. VAT returns and payment are due by the 10th of the second month after each return period.

If you live outside Cyprus: since 20 August 2020, Law 122(I)/2020 has required anyone making taxable supplies in Cyprus in the course of a business, but with no business establishment or other fixed establishment there, to register with no threshold. Whether that catches an owner who lives in the UK and lets one flat through a manager is a question to put to a Cyprus accountant before the first booking.

Long lets of residential property are exempt from VAT.

VAT when you buy: 19% on the whole price if you plan to let

Decide this before you sign. The reduced 5% rate on a new home is for a main residence the buyer lives in for at least ten years. A home bought for holiday letting does not meet that condition, so VAT is charged at the standard 19% on the whole price: a flat at €220,000 before VAT costs €261,800.

If you bought at the reduced rate as a main residence and start letting within ten years, part of the relief goes back to the state: VAT saved × (10 − years lived there) ÷ 10. How the rate works on a given size and price is in VAT on new-build property in Cyprus in 2026; the other costs of buying are on the cost of buying property in Cyprus.

If a management company runs the lettings

An owner who lives abroad can hand the lettings to a management company. By Expat Focus's figures, holiday-let managers take 15–25% of gross income, covering changeover cleaning, check-in and the platforms. What stays with you:

• ·The tax. The income is taxed on the owner whoever is named on the register; the manager's fee comes off as an expense.
• ·Consent to the registration. An operator may apply only with the owner's consent, and a manager given the running of the property carries the operator's legal responsibilities.
• ·Documents with an expiry date. Let the registration lapse and you are letting without one; let the insurance lapse and the registration can be revoked.

The other arrangement: let the whole flat to a management company at a fixed rent and leave the nightly letting to them. For an individual owner that is ordinary rental income — the flat 20% deduction, 2.65% GESY on the gross rent, withheld by the tenant if it is a company.

The development's own rules

A development also has rules for its shared areas — pool, parking, gardens — and a community fee the owner pays, not the guest. Read them before you reserve: your guests will share the pool with the neighbours.

For the developments in our catalogue: they do not prohibit short-term letting. We do not run holiday lets ourselves — the registration, the platforms and the manager are the buyer's to arrange.

Long lets and holiday lets side by side

In order

1. 01Before you sign, decide whether this will be your main home: it decides between the 5% rate (on all or part of the price, depending on size and value) and 19% on all of it.
2. 02After handover: an electricity bill for the flat, fire and third-party insurance, a Cyprus tax number.
3. 03Apply to the register and pay the €222. Listings go live once the number is issued.
4. 04Settle the VAT position before the first season — straight away if you live outside Cyprus.
5. 05Agree in writing with the manager who applies and who renews the registration and insurance.
6. 06Every year, a tax return with income and expenses.

These are the rules, not a calculation of your position: the tax turns on your whole income, your residence and where you pay tax now. Have an accountant with Cyprus practice run it before you buy. One- and two-bedroom apartments in Paphos are in new-build apartments in Paphos, and the full catalogue with prices is here. How we check the facts in these articles is on a page of its own.