North Cyprus Property Market Approaching Kick Off

North Cyprus, which has been separate from the rest of Cyprus since the Turkish invasion of 1974, is divided from the rest of the island - and, through restrictions on trade and transport, the rest of the international community - in all sorts of ways.

It was only a couple of years ago that a visit to North Cyprus would necessitate a stopover flight in Turkey, because no other country flew planes into the north of the island.

However, times are changing, for example a growing number of tourists are now taking advantage of the fact that it is now possible to fly into the republic of Cyprus and simply cross the border into the north, where prices are far cheaper than those in the rest of the island and far, far lower than in other popular Mediterranean holiday destinations.

Indeed the division between the Turkish controlled north of the island and the Geek Cypriot south has never seemed more likely to be resolved than at the present. Under the last Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, reunification talks - which came in the form of the Annan plan - stalled, and any excitement or optimism over a workable plan for reunification evaporated on both sides of the green line.

However, since February of this year the newly elected Demetris Christofias and his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat have been meeting regularly and both have expressed a desire to reunify the island. With the UN once again brokering the discussion, and Ankara only too aware of the EU ascension talks that restart, on paper at least, next year, there is a hefty amount of optimism not just domestically within the island itself but also from the international diplomatic community as a whole.

As a result of these revived talks and the increasing optimism in the chances of the Mediterranean island's reunification the property market is already expanding upwards. With prices in the Republic of Cyprus between a third and a half as much as those in the Turkish North of the island, investors are placing money into the property market in North Cyprus with the expectation that prices are about to boom.

Another area where long entrenched divisions have afflicted the island is in the game of football. Currently the Cyprus national football team - who are rated sixty fifth in the world, behind Burkina Faso and one place above Bahrain - only accept players from the Greek Cypriot portion of the island. Now, however, talks are underway between FIFA, the north's Cyprus Turkish Football Federation (CTFF), and the Republic's Cyprus Football Association (CFA) with an eye to forming a united national team.

In addition, the exclusion of domestic North Cypriot teams from international games has also been discussed, with FIFA suggesting, this July, that the Turkish Cypriot football clubs should amalgamate with the CFA's league.

Although the idea was rejected, the CTFF's President Omer Adal has this week said that he wishes to bind all the clubs on the island together into one federation, and promised that exhibition games between teams from both sides of the divide would soon be underway, in anticipation of a political solution to the island's long standing division.

Even if you are not interested in football, Adal's announcement should be taken as symbolic of wider opinion shift on Cyprus itself, an opinion shift that is a crucial barometer of the wider, changing climate. Careful investment in north Cyprus properties might just be the most exciting, promising investment opportunity in Europe right now, with many commentators, journalists and, of course, investors and developers buying property in North Cyprus before the market kicks-off for real.