For most visitors, Larnaca is the airport you land at on the way somewhere else. Over the coming years it is set to change: a €415 million roadmap for the port and the marina, a record year at the airport, and a construction wave visible in the national figures.
By Global Ayalon Investments · 5 min read
In brief
- On 3 July 2026 the Cyprus Ports Authority presented a roadmap for an estimated €415 million investment in Larnaca port and marina, phased across a programme running to 2045.
- Larnaca airport closed 2025 with 9,914,092 passengers – an all-time high, according to Hermes Airports.
- Building permits across Cyprus jumped 32.1% in January–May 2026, though the Cyprus Statistical Service qualifies the figure itself.
- Tourism fell 7.0% in January–August 2026, and the monthly detail shows the gap closing: from minus 30.7% in March to between minus 1% and minus 3.3% over the summer.
What is happening at the port
Larnaca port and its marina have been a stalled project for years. In May 2024 the Cypriot government terminated its agreement with Kition Ocean Holdings, and administration of the port returned to the Ports Authority. In May 2026 the government decided to transfer the port, the marina and the port’s land area to the authority, and tasked it with delivering a roadmap by 30 June 2026.
The roadmap was presented on 3 July 2026. It describes a total estimated investment of €415 million, split across three sub-projects: roughly €190 million for the marina’s land areas and the plots adjacent to it, between 2027 and 2036; roughly €20 million for the marina itself over the same years; and roughly €205 million for modernising and expanding the port, phased through to 2045. The master plan is due to be completed by 2029.
2045 is not next year, and a master plan due in 2029 is still a planning document rather than a crane on site. After two years of uncertainty with a private concessionaire, Larnaca’s waterfront is back with a public body that has committed to dates. The first of those dates is 2027, when the marina-land phase is due to begin.
The airport
According to Hermes Airports, the operator of both Cypriot airports, 9,914,092 passengers passed through Larnaca in 2025 – an all-time high. Paphos recorded 3,837,155 that year, and the two airports together 13,751,247. Between January and August 2026, 6,154,868 passengers passed through Larnaca, 6.7% fewer than in the same months of 2025.
Larnaca is the larger of the two airports, and in practice the island’s main gateway. For a city of its size that is an unusual piece of infrastructure: direct routes to Europe and to Israel year-round, a terminal working at a pace that is not seasonal, and employment resting on it that does not disappear in October. For anyone living between two countries, that is a practical reason to choose where to live.
The construction figures, and the caveat attached to them
A clarification is needed here. Building permits are published at national level only, and there is no public breakdown by district. The figures below describe Cyprus as a whole, not only Larnaca.
According to the Cyprus Statistical Service, 3,650 building permits were authorised in January–May 2026 compared with 2,764 in the corresponding period of 2025, up 32.1%. The authorised floor area reached 1,702,723 m² against 1,189,633 m², up 43.1%, and the total value €2.099 billion against €1.459 billion, up 43.9%. The permits provide for 8,978 dwelling units against 5,484, up 63.7%, of which 6,667 units in residential apartment blocks against 3,497, up 90.6%. In May 2026 alone, 735 permits were authorised, worth €428.2 million, covering 352.1 thousand m² and 1,847 dwelling units.
In the same release, the Statistical Service qualifies the figures. Since 1 July 2024 permits have been issued by the new Local Government Organisations through the “Ippodamos” electronic system, and a large volume of older applications originally submitted on paper before that date is now being processed through it. Part of the year-on-year jump is therefore new demand, and part of it is a backlog that has finally entered the system. There is no public way to separate the two.
The less comfortable part: tourism
According to the Cyprus Statistical Service, 2,820,649 tourist arrivals were recorded in January–August 2026 compared with 3,034,155 in the corresponding period of 2025, a fall of 7.0%.
March 2026 closed 30.7% below March 2025, April 27.6% below, May only 4.9% below, June 1.7%, July 1.1% and August 3.3% (581,880 arrivals). The collapse happened at the start of the year, and from June onwards the gap stayed between 1% and 3.3%.
The largest source market in August 2026 was the United Kingdom with 30.5% of arrivals. Israel was second with 23.3%, up 28.4% on August 2025, followed by Poland with 6.3%, Germany with 4.4% and Sweden with 3.0%. In August, almost one in every four tourist arrivals to Cyprus was Israeli.
The backdrop
All of this is happening against an economic backdrop we covered at length in the first article in this series: real GDP growth of 3.0% in the first quarter of 2026 against the corresponding quarter, unemployment around 4%, and public debt that has fallen below 60% of GDP. These figures are national, but they are the condition that allows a two-decade infrastructure programme to be written in the first place.
To live in, not only to holiday in
A city is measured not only by how many people visit it, but by how many of them stay. Larnaca in 2026 shows both sides at once: tourism that fell and recovered, an airport at a record, a waterfront that has entered a long-term programme, and a national construction sector showing movement even after the caveat is deducted from it. None of these components is a promise. Together they describe a city in the middle of a change rather than at the end of one.
Global Ayalon Investments is an Israeli company developing boutique residential projects in Larnaca. We accompany the process end to end: sourcing and developing the property, dealing with the banks, immigration matters, taxation, and managing the property after purchase.
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Sources
- Cyprus Statistical Service, cystat.gov.cy, September 2026.
- Hermes Airports, hermesairports.com, September 2026.
- Cyprus Ports Authority, via cbn.com.cy, July 2026.
- European Commission, ec.europa.eu, May 2026.
- International Monetary Fund, imf.org, June 2026.