A Germasogeia apartment block has stood for years with one side effectively unsupported — no retaining wall, no fix, and no title deeds for the people who bought flats there — and a fresh complaint to Cyprus’s anti-corruption watchdog has forced the issue back into the open.
The block on Agiou Ilarionos Street is built on a slope. Without the retaining wall, residents and neighbours at lower elevations face what the Independent Authority against Corruption describes as a serious risk of injury or loss of life.
The anonymous complaint targeted the municipality for failing to ensure the wall was built.
The Authority found no evidence of corruption as defined under the 2022 law governing its remit, but said it could not ignore the safety risk and wrote to the municipality demanding immediate action.
Mayor of Amathounta Kyriakos Xydias told Phileleftheros the Authority had called on the municipality to act — something he said it had already been trying to do.
“It’s something we are trying to do one way or another. We have tried many times,” he said, acknowledging that complications have held up progress.
The sticking point is access. A solution proposed in 2021 requires building the retaining wall from neighbouring plots below the block — the only technically feasible approach.
Landowners agreed to the plan, but the key plot holder, who has health problems, has refused to allow workers onto his property. “The proposal was accepted, but the works did not proceed because of the refusal of the main affected owner, who has health problems and did not allow access to his property,” the mayor said.
“We have taken many steps to find a solution and we will keep doing so, as the Authority calls on us to do.”
Apartment buyers have waited decades for title deeds. The development remains unfinished and the building unsafe.
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