'Our view: Abolish the mortgage enforcement freeze | Cyprus Mail'

The freeze on forced real estate sales continues until the end of the year after a meeting between representatives of banks and President Nicos Christodoulides on Wednesday.

The freeze came into effect in early July when banks and loan purchase companies agreed not to auction primary homes worth up to 350,000 euros until the end of October. That was a favor to the government, which had pleaded with the party not to pass legislation to suspend forced sales and to wait for the development of a new legal framework that would ostensibly protect primary housing.

The deadline the government had hoped for expired at the end of October, but the new legal framework never appeared, so representatives of the banks and''Loan purchase companies were invited to the presidential palace to discuss the extension of the deadline. The banks agreed to keep the freeze in place until the end of the year to allow the Ministry of Finance to finalize consultations with stakeholders and develop legislation.

It goes without saying that the existing legislation on forced sales of real estate does not violate anything and the government knows it, but in order to prevent its suspension and undermine the banking system in the eyes of the rating agencies and the ECB, the finance minister came up with the idea of new legislation.

What does the new legislation entail?

Allow people who have been defaulting on their mortgages for years to defer''forced sale for several years, giving them the right to appeal the judgment? In the meantime, the debt owed to the bank will rise due to the current level of interest rates, making their loans even more unaffordable.

What happens next? Will the government introduce new legislation to protect so-called vulnerable borrowers?

Factually, existing legislation on forced sales of real estate is not enforced, banks are expected not to pursue''bad debts while the government wastes time and resources on unnecessary legislation so that people can continue to default on mortgages they cannot afford because they have been deemed 'vulnerable'.

Some of these 'vulnerable' borrowers may own a primary residence worth €350,000 without paying even half of its value, so why are they seen as homeowners deserving of protection? Politicians pretend that these vulnerable debtors will illegally lose their property, but can they claim a property they haven't paid for? In a rational world, no, but in a country run by populists, it is entirely possible.