'Britons face losing homes in Northern Cyprus as refugees reclaim land'

British property buyers seeking holiday homes at highly affordable prices in northern Cyprus are stepping into one of the most emotive issues of the long-running Cyprus problem. The vast majority of houses are sprouting on land that 167,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to abandon when Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus in 1974.

Greek Cypriot refugees, longing to reclaim their properties, fear that the frenetic building is literally cementing the island’s division. To them, British buyers are “trespassers” attempting to profit from their misfortune.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s website gives warning that northern Cyprus’s “non-recognition” and the possibility of a settlement “could have implications for those considering buying property”.

Now that Cyprus is a member of the European Union.

“Many of the British who have properties in the north are now very worried as to what will happen to them. Some of them sold up completely in England and went to live in north Cyprus permanently,”

Do not become a statistic in something that looks like a good deal, but will end in tears.