You need the certificate before the property goes on the market, not at signing. Section 6 of the Regulation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Law, Law 142(I)/2006, puts the duty on the owner: arrange an energy performance certificate when a building or unit is constructed, offered for sale, or offered to a new tenant. It has to be shown to the prospective buyer or tenant and then handed to them, and the energy class has to appear in the advertisement. The administrative fine for getting this wrong now reaches €50,000.
What section 6 actually asks for
The law lists four triggers. An EPC is required for buildings and building units that are constructed, for those offered for sale or sold, for those offered for rent or let to a new tenant, and for buildings where more than 250 square metres of useful floor area is used by a public authority and frequently visited by the public. That last category also has to display the certificate somewhere the public can see it.
Section 6(2) is the part sellers and landlords skip. During construction, sale or letting, the certificate or a copy of it is shown to the candidate tenant or buyer, and then delivered to whoever signs. Showing it at completion, after the price has been agreed, misses the point of the provision and the wording of it.
Section 8A goes further and catches estate agents as much as owners. Any person or company that advertises a building or unit for sale or rent in a commercial advertisement must state the energy class shown on the certificate. That applies to portal listings, not just printed brochures.
A certificate lasts ten years at most under section 6(8), and the Energy Service says it must be revised if any change to the building materially affects its energy performance. Refitting a flat and then reselling it on a certificate issued before the works is asking for an argument with the buyer's lawyer.
Who can issue one, and how to tell it is genuine
Only a qualified expert can issue an EPC, and the term is defined. Section 2 of the law describes a qualified expert as a person registered by the competent authority in the register of qualified experts for a specified category or categories of building. The competent authority is the Energy Service of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, which publishes the register online alongside the register of certificates.
Every certificate carries a unique registration number in the top left corner, and the Energy Service runs a public checker where you can enter that number and confirm the certificate exists. For a buyer doing due diligence on a resale flat, it takes a minute and is worth doing, because the offence of issuing certificates without the legal right to do so exists in the statute for a reason.
Two shortcuts are built in. Under section 6A, a certificate for a detached house may be based on the assessment of another representative building of similar design and size with a similar level of performance, as long as the expert who issues it guarantees the correspondence. Under section 7, a certificate for a unit may be based on common certification of the whole building, or on another representative unit in the same complex with the same energy characteristics. That is why every flat in a block often shares the same class.
What the class means, and why new builds are all A
Cyprus grades buildings from A to H, with A the most efficient. The grade matters more for new construction than most buyers realise, because it is not just a label. Under the minimum energy performance requirements that took effect in 2020, new buildings have to reach class A and cover at least 25% of their primary energy consumption from renewable sources, with hotels held to 9%. Residential buildings undergoing large-scale renovation have to reach class A as well, and other buildings at least B+.
That sits on top of section 5A, which required every new building to be a nearly zero energy building by 31 December 2020, and new buildings owned or occupied by public authorities from 1 January 2019. There is also a planning sweetener that has been running since 2014: a building that reaches class A with at least 25% of its primary energy from renewables gets a 5% extra building space allowance, which is why developers of larger schemes pay attention to the figure.
For older stock the picture is thinner. In the Ministry's 2020 report on implementing the buildings directive, certificates issued for existing buildings accounted for 10.6% of all certificates issued, which tells you how seriously the sale and rental duty was being taken at that point.
Cost and timing
There is no official fee scale. The qualified expert sets the price, and the cost falls on the owner or seller rather than the buyer. One Cyprus assessor's published price list, checked in September 2026, quotes €250 plus VAT for a studio, €350 plus VAT for an apartment and €450 plus VAT for a house, with anything over 200 square metres priced on request, and puts issue at five to ten days from the inspection. Treat that as a market indication rather than a rate, and get two quotes.
Build the lead time into your timetable rather than the completion checklist. If you are selling a property in Cyprus, the certificate needs to exist before the first listing photograph goes up, which is usually weeks before anyone talks about a contract.
The exemptions, and the listed-building trap
Annex II to the law sets out the categories that escape both the minimum performance requirements and the certificate:
- Buildings used as religious temples.
- Industrial or craft buildings and warehouses, in whole or in part, where no energy is used to control indoor climate and the use is purely industrial, craft or storage. Ancillary climate-controlled spaces under 50 square metres inside them are covered too.
- Rural buildings not occupied by people, with low energy requirements or in a sector covered by a specific energy efficiency agreement.
- Individual buildings with a total useful floor area under 50 square metres.
Listed buildings are where people go wrong, including some official summaries. Section 4(5) disapplies the minimum energy performance requirements for buildings declared preservable under the Preservation of Buildings Law or declared ancient monuments under the Antiquities Law, where meeting those requirements would unacceptably alter their character or appearance, and only if the owner documents the position to the Director of Town Planning and Housing or the Director of Antiquities. That carve-out is about performance standards. It is not in Annex II, and section 8 only excuses Annex II buildings from the certificate. A listed stone house in old Nicosia still needs an EPC before it is sold or let, even though nobody will ask it to hit class B.
What happens if there is no certificate
Section 18(1) gives the Energy Service power to impose an administrative fine of up to €50,000 for breach of any provision of the law or the regulations made under it, calibrated to the nature, gravity, duration and extent of the breach. The authority can also order energy-saving measures at the owner's expense and set a deadline to end the breach. There is a hierarchical appeal to the Minister within thirty days, and an unpaid fine is recovered as a civil debt due to the Republic.
You will still see €30,000 quoted on Cyprus property sites, and on the Energy Service's own FAQ page, which refers to the Laws of 2006 to 2017. That figure was correct until Law 155(I)/2020, published on 13 November 2020, replaced it with €50,000. The same amendment raised the criminal ceiling in section 20 from €50,000 to €250,000.
Section 20 is the criminal side and it bites on professionals more than owners. Knowingly working from false data to produce a certificate, issuing documents without the approval or legal right to do so, presenting yourself as a qualified expert when your registration has expired, been suspended or terminated, or obstructing the authority, each carries up to two years' imprisonment or a fine up to €250,000, or both. Section 21 pulls in directors, secretaries and other officers of a company personally where the offence was committed with their consent or connivance.
What changes next
The recast buildings directive, Directive (EU) 2024/1275, entered into force on 28 May 2024 with a transposition deadline of 29 May 2026. As at September 2026 the consolidated text of Law 142(I)/2006 on CyLaw still shows Law 155(I)/2020 as the last amendment, with no pending amending laws listed, so the Cyprus statute has not yet been rewritten for it. Expect changes to the certificate format and the class scale when it is. If you hold a certificate issued years ago and are about to market a property, check its status with the Energy Service rather than assuming the ten years run quietly to the end.
Buying or letting in Cyprus and unsure what the seller owes you? Run the due diligence checklist before you pay a deposit, read our guides to buying property in Cyprus and rental law, and take anything contested to a property lawyer from the directory. This article states the position as at September 2026.