€300,000 Buys You 17% More Space in Paphos Than in Limassol

Most people researching a Cyprus purchase already know the number. €300,000 is the threshold for permanent residency by investment (Category F), and it has become the default budget for international buyers: the figure they arrive with before they have chosen a city.

Few people know how far that budget stretches, and how much the answer changes depending on where you spend it.

We ran the numbers across our own inventory as of 30 October 2026. At current median prices, €300,000 buys roughly 68 m² in Paphos and 58 m² in Limassol. The difference is 9.8 m², or 17% more floor space for the same money. Catalogue prices exclude VAT; the VAT rules follow below.

9.8 m² is the size of a small bedroom.

The arithmetic

The gap comes from the difference in price per square metre:

Limassol carries a 16.8% premium per square metre. Turn that around and the cost of matching Paphos space becomes concrete:

At 100 m², the same apartment costs roughly €74,400 more in Limassol. That covers several years of running costs or a good part of the VAT bill. Prices also differ inside Limassol: the Germasogeia vs marina comparison shows how many square metres €600,000 buys near the marina and across Germasogeia.

What that looks like in real listings

Medians are useful for comparison and abstract to picture. Here is what our inventory holds in the €300,000–€400,000 band.

In Paphos, the typical apartment in that band runs to 78 m², 2 bedrooms, 4 minutes from the beach, at €4,425 per square metre. The sample is 244 listings across 51 developments from 20 developers, and the largest developer supplies 16% of them. That is a cross-section of the market, and any single price list carries a small share of it.

In Limassol, the same band gives a median of 66 m², 1 bedroom, 4 minutes from the beach, at €5,169 per square metre. The sample is 199 listings across 43 developments from 11 developers. It is large enough to read, with one caveat we would rather state than hide: the largest developer supplies 37% of the listings, so the Limassol figure leans on a few price lists more than the Paphos one does.

Why Limassol costs more

The premium has causes. Limassol is Cyprus's business and financial centre, with year-round demand from finance and tech professionals, while Paphos draws a more seasonal tourist flow. Prime seafront positions in Limassol rank among the most expensive on the island.

Paphos is a smaller, calmer, more tourism-driven market on the west coast, with its own international airport and a long-established British and Northern-European community. Less corporate demand, lower prices, more space per euro.

Paphos offers the same new-build product in a different market.

What Limassol gives you back

Here is the other half of the picture.

Rental income. Limassol's business demand runs all year, and Paphos is more seasonal, although its tourist areas do well on short lets. We give no yield percentages by city here, because we could not confirm them against official sources. Work out the yield for the specific property, using a real rent and the occupancy record month by month.

So the trade is: more space per euro in Paphos, year-round rental demand and an established business environment in Limassol. Which matters depends on whether you are buying somewhere to live or something to let. If you are weighing the two cities more broadly — lifestyle, schools, airports, neighbourhoods — we compared them in detail in Paphos vs Limassol.

One thing that stays the same: permanent residency (Category F)

€300,000 is the residency threshold for most buyers arriving at this question, so it is worth stating plainly: the city makes no difference to eligibility. New-build property at or above €300,000 plus VAT, bought directly from a licensed developer, qualifies for the permanent-residency route (Category F) in Paphos and Limassol alike.

Two details matter and often get missed:

The threshold is €300,000 plus VAT. Catalogue prices exclude VAT. The rate depends on the property and the buyer: 5% applies only to a main residence of up to 130 m² with a total price of up to €350,000; between €350,000 and €475,000, check the rate with a lawyer before you sign; from €475,000, 19% applies to the whole price. For an apartment at exactly €300,000 that is €315,000 at 5% and €357,000 at 19%, a gap of €42,000, so establish your eligibility for the reduced rate before you commit.

The threshold mostly concerns apartments. In our inventory, 721 of 722 villas (99.9%) start at €300,000 or above, against 1,610 of 2,040 apartments (78.9%). A villa buyer practically never meets the threshold. In the band just below it, €270,000 to €299,999, we hold 170 listings across 46 developments: 159 apartments, 9 studios, one villa and one office. If you are shopping close to the line, you are mostly shopping for apartments, and the line is worth watching.

Full requirements, income thresholds and process are in our guide to Cyprus permanent residency.

So which should you buy?

Choose Paphos if floor space, outdoor space and value per euro matter most: if the property is somewhere you will live, or a family home you will use yourself. You get roughly 17% more of it for the same budget, and an airport minutes away.

Choose Limassol if year-round rental demand is the point, or if the business and international environment matters to you, and you accept a real premium per square metre for it.

If you are genuinely unsure, that usually means the property is for living in, and Paphos is the more efficient use of €300,000.

Methodology

These figures come from our own live inventory of new-build property in Cyprus as of 30 October 2026, filtered to available (non-sold) listings with both a price and a recorded floor area. Catalogue prices exclude VAT.

• The comparison covers apartments (apartments, penthouses, duplexes and maisonettes; studios are left out) priced above €300,000 and up to €400,000 inclusive.
• Price per m² is the median across qualifying listings in each district. We do not use the average, because a handful of ultra-prime properties would distort it.
• The 17% figure is derived by dividing €300,000 by each district's median price per m². It describes what the budget buys at typical prices and does not measure two specific apartments.
• Sample sizes: Paphos apartments, 244 listings across 51 developments from 20 developers. Limassol apartments, 199 listings across 43 developments from 11 developers. We leave out district-and-type combinations that come from just one or two developments, because a single building's price list is not a market reading. The largest developer's share of the sample is 16% in Paphos and 37% in Limassol.
• Villas are excluded from the comparison: our inventory holds no villa in the €300,000–€400,000 band (the cheapest villa at €300,000 or above costs €415,000). This is an apartment finding.
• Coverage: the inventory has developments with available listings in all five districts (number of developments: Paphos 177, Limassol 110, Larnaca 25, Famagusta 11, Nicosia 4). We compare the two best-represented ones. The inventory is new-build and skews coastal and premium, and it is thinner in Nicosia and Famagusta. It records developers' asking prices; official transaction statistics covering the whole market, including resale, can look different. Both can be true, since they describe different things.

Prices move. These figures reflect our inventory as of 30 October 2026.

Find out what your budget buys

Tell us your budget and what the property is for — living, letting, or residency — and we will show you exactly what it reaches in each city, with real availability and no medians.