On a bright Monday morning in Limassol, Maria unlocks the door of her new one-bedroom flat. It looks like a boutique-hotel suite, high-speed Wi-Fi is humming, fresh linens wait in the cupboard, and a QR code on the coffee table summons housekeeping on demand, yet her agreement runs for six months, not six nights. 

Maria is not a tourist, nor a lifelong tenant: she is part of a fast-growing tribe living in serviced apartments, a product that borrows the best of hotels and rentals to create a third category altogether.

Why Serviced Apartments Are Winning the Race for Flexible Living

Globally, the sector is already big business. Grand View Research values the market at US $112 billion in 2023 and expects it to more than double by 2030 on the back of a 12.7% compound annual growth rate. Investors have noticed: Savills records €700 million of European serviced-apartment transactions in 2023, representing almost 5% of all hospitality deals on the continent.

Three forces sit behind those numbers. First, corporate mobility has changed. Project teams that once hopped between hotels for weeks now want a kitchen and a washing machine, but without the hassle of lease administration. Second, the digital-nomad boom is structural. 

Cyprus reopened its Digital Nomad Visa this April and retained the higher quota of 500 residence permits, ensuring a steady inflow of remote professionals looking for medium-term stays. Third, tech-enabled operators have reset expectations. Blueground’s $45 million Series D raise in 2024 underlines how much capital believes in “book-online-move-in-tomorrow” living.

Because serviced apartments combine hotel revenues with leaner staffing, margins are robust. Operating costs run 25-30% below full-service hotels, allowing operators to flex nightly or monthly rates with demand while keeping occupancy high. Savills’ data show that extended-stay assets out-performed hotels during the post-pandemic rebound as business travel returned gradually. 

For property owners, the model also spreads risk: contracts roll month-to-month, capturing high-season upside without the concentration risk of nightly tourism.

Cyprus as A Case Study in the Hybrid-Stay Boom

Cyprus is translating those macro tailwinds into bricks and mortar. A surge of 4,782 building permits in the first half of 2024, up 32.5% year-on-year, pushed the total permit value to €2 billion, a 44.4% jump. Much of that pipeline is multi-storey, mixed-use blocks designed from day one for flexible, plug-and-play occupation. Demand is clearly there: the Ask Wire Rental Index shows apartment rents climbing 1.5% year-on-year in Q4 2024 even as house rents softened, signalling a tenant preference for compact, amenity-rich living.

Crucially, the model also helps policy-makers. By encouraging longer average stays and professional management, serviced apartments ease the social friction associated with short-stay tourism while still attracting higher-spending residents. They create a pipeline of well-maintained housing stock that can pivot between tourist, corporate and relocation demand as seasons, and economic cycles, change.

For residents like Maria - consultants on six-month assignments, start-up teams between funding rounds, digital nomads chasing the Mediterranean sun - serviced apartments answer the age-old question of where to live when life is in transit. For investors and developers, they offer a hedge against volatile tourism and a yield premium over long-term rentals. 

Cyprus has long sold sunshine; the serviced-apartment revolution lets the island sell flexibility. 

Those who build for the “guests who never leave” today may find tomorrow’s real-estate cycle a lot easier to weather.

Reach out to us at M.Residence to fit the serviced-apartment asset to your portfolio. Come with intent, and we’ll handle the rest.

Until Next Time,

The M.Residence Team