The Hungarian-Israeli investor behind the Trozena redevelopment project bought 94 plots in the abandoned Limassol village, with Land Registry estimates for the area suggesting some of the land changed hands at as little as one to two euros per square metre, Phileleftheros has learnt.
According to a reliable source, Uriel Curtis’s company paid generally between €20,000 and €40,000 per plot, with prices varying according to size. Some plots extend to 4,000–5,000 square metres, the source said, while others reach approximately 25,000 square metres.
The land was acquired mainly from 2022 onwards and purchased incrementally, plot by plot, according to the same source. Phileleftheros understands this approach allowed the investor to proceed quietly without signalling the scale of the investment — something that might otherwise have driven up sellers’ asking prices. The source noted that this is a practice any investor, Cypriot or foreign, would typically follow.
Individual Greek Cypriots also purchased property in the area, separate from the company’s acquisitions, Phileleftheros understands.
Planning dispute
The investor’s application, pending before the Limassol District Local Government Organisation (DLGO/ΕΟΑ), covers not only a winery but also a campsite around the village and the construction of 60 units. The Environment Department has reservations about the application as submitted, which is one reason it remains unresolved.
A discrepancy has also emerged over the nature of those 60 units. Curtis has said publicly that the plan calls for 60 rooms, not individual houses. The DLGO, however, reads the application as referring to houses.
According to information received by Phileleftheros from the DLGO, what appears to be under consideration is the demolition of existing ruins — or structures that cannot be restored — and the construction of new buildings in their place. Some of the 94 plots are expected to be used for the campsite.
The Arsos community leader previously told Phileleftheros that Curtis had purchased 15 of the village’s approximately 30 derelict properties, along with 150 acres (stremmata) of surrounding land being converted into vineyards for the proposed winery.
Tangled ownership
Securing title to property in Trozena proved difficult, Phileleftheros understands. The village was abandoned around 1991, and some ownership records date to transfers made in 1920–1925.
A number of original owners are no longer alive and may have left no heirs, while others have so many heirs that reaching agreement on a sale has proved complicated.
Some plots in Trozena belong to Turkish Cypriots, according to Phileleftheros. Most of the Turkish Cypriot community had lived in the adjacent village of Gerovasa — almost contiguous with Trozena and exclusively Turkish Cypriot — before leaving during the intercommunal disturbances of 1963.
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