Cyprus enacts law releasing "trapped" house owners, opens way to next bailout tranche

Cyprus enacted legislation on Friday releasing tens of thousands of home buyers who had been "trapped" by property sellers' debts to banks, and at the same time fulfilled a prior action for the release of more assistance money by international lenders.

The law was published in the official gazette, thus becoming active, after parliament passed it in a rare unanimous vote on Thursday night.

The legislation is designed to enable more than 30,000 owners who have paid up, to obtain a legal title deed to their properties which could not be issued up to now, because of bank mortgages or tax dues to the state by developers.

The law covers transactions up to the end of 2012.

Passage of the law was the last prior action required by the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of the next tranche of bailout assistance, amounting to 500 million euros (555 million U.S. dollars).

The troika representing the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF had set a Sept. 5 deadline for the fulfillment of all prior actions before finalizing its evaluation report.

Cyprus was rescued from bankruptcy in a 10-billion-euro deal in March, 2013.

The eastern Mediterranean island has received about 6 billion euros up to now but it may not need the entire amount of the financial assistance by the time it exits its three-year economic adjustment program in seven months.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades has said Cyprus will make a regular comeback to international markets by the end of the year, probably in December. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Endit