Interior design
How a commercial interior design project runs in Cyprus
How a commercial fit-out actually runs in Cyprus: the stages in order, the consents that set the programme, and the points where projects usually slip.
7 min read
Photo: Max Vakhtbovych on Pexels
Elena covers interior design, furniture and lighting for Cypriot homes. Her focus is the gap between a scheme drawn for a northern European climate and one that survives this light, this heat and, near the coast, this salt.
Published
A commercial fit-out in Cyprus is a consent programme with a design attached, not the other way round. The drawings are usually the fastest part. What sets your opening date is whether the work touches structure or the building envelope, whether the use of the premises is changing, and whether the trades you need are available in the window your business can afford to be closed.
Overview and timeline
Work backwards from the consent, because that is the long pole.
Planning permission runs to something in the order of 150 days as a typical duration, and the building permit that follows it runs to something in the order of 120 days. Those are sequential, not parallel: the building permit is issued on the basis of a planning consent already in hand. A project that needs both is a project measured in seasons.
The good news is that a large share of commercial interior work needs neither. If you are refitting an existing office or retail unit within the same use, keeping the envelope intact and not moving structure, the design and construction stages can run in months rather than seasons. The point of the first two weeks is establishing which of those two projects you have.
Before you start
Five things belong on the table before a designer starts drawing. Missing any of them is the most common reason a programme is rewritten later.
The lease, read properly
What alterations does it permit, what reinstatement does it require at the end, and who consents to what. Commercial leases in Cyprus routinely require landlord approval for anything fixed to the fabric, and that approval sits on the critical path whether or not anyone put it there.
A measured survey, not the landlord's plan
The plan you were given is usually the marketing plan. Before-and-after dimensions, ceiling voids, riser positions and existing services need measuring. On older Cypriot commercial stock, drawings of what was actually built often do not exist.
Electrical capacity
The supply that served a shop will not necessarily serve a kitchen, a data room or a full air-conditioning load. Capacity is checked, not assumed, and an upgrade is an external process with its own lead time.
Who certifies the drawings
Anything touching structure or the envelope needs drawings certified by a professional registered with ETEK. A designer without that registration can produce the design, but somebody else has to certify it. Settle who, in writing, at the start.
Your closure window
In Ayia Napa, Protaras and the seasonal stock generally, refurbishment is concentrated in November to March because the premises trade for the rest of the year. That window is not negotiable and every other date has to fit inside it.
The stages in order
Design fees for a full service, concept through to installation, run from about EUR 35 to EUR 130 per square metre, with the middle of the market near EUR 65. Commercial work sits toward the upper half of that, because the coordination load is heavier and because someone has to answer for compliance.
1. Brief and feasibility. What the space has to do, for how many people, and what it must not do. Feasibility is where the consent question gets answered, and where a scheme that cannot be built gets stopped cheaply.
2. Survey and existing-conditions drawings. Measured, on site. This is the document everything else is dimensioned from.
3. Concept. Layouts, zoning of the space, circulation, the material and lighting direction. Presented at a level where you can change your mind without anything being lost.
4. Developed design. The concept resolved into a coordinated set: reflected ceiling plan, lighting and power layouts, joinery drawings, finishes schedule. Where visualisations are used, published rates run from roughly EUR 180 to EUR 650 per photoreal image with one revision included, which makes them a deliberate purchase rather than a default one.
5. Consents. Landlord approval, and where required, planning permission and the building permit on certified drawings. Premises open to the public also bring fire safety and accessibility requirements into the design, and these are cheaper to design in than to retrofit.
6. Tender. The drawing package goes to contractors, who price the same document. This is the only stage that produces genuinely comparable quotes, and it is the stage most often skipped under time pressure.
7. Construction, with the designer on site. Site attendance is normally a separate engagement from the design fee. Agree the frequency, and agree who issues instructions to the contractor. Two people instructing one contractor is how budgets move.
8. Snagging and handover. The list, the retention, the operation and maintenance information, and the as-built drawings you will need the next time anyone opens a ceiling. On coastal premises this stage matters more than it sounds: in the Limassol seafront stock, where high-rise development has pushed demand for balcony waterproofing and facade maintenance, the interface between your fit-out and the building fabric is exactly where responsibility gets disputed a year later. Record what you installed, and where it meets what you did not.
Where projects usually slip
The pattern is consistent, and only one of these is really about design.
- Consent discovered late. A wall comes out on the concept drawing, and nobody asks whether it is structural until the contractor arrives. The building permit is measured in months; the redesign that avoids it is measured in days.
- Landlord approval treated as a formality. It is a written consent with a turnaround time, and it frequently comes back with conditions that change the design.
- Electrical capacity. Discovered at second fix, when it is a change to everything already installed.
- Long-lead items ordered late. Bespoke joinery, specialist glazing and imported equipment all arrive on the island by sea. Order dates belong on the programme with names against them.
- Building rules in high-rise stock. In Limassol, where rapid high-rise development has changed the commercial stock, building management sets delivery hours, lift access and noisy-work windows. Those constraints halve some working days.
- The season. Work priced in October for a coastal property in the seasonal belt competes with every other refurbishment in the same November to March window. Book the trades early or price the delay.
What you sign off
Sign-off is a sequence of decisions that get progressively more expensive to reverse. Know which one you are at.
Works well when
Reversible at low cost: the brief, the layout, the material direction, the lighting concept. Change your mind freely here — it is what the concept stage is for.
Less suitable when
Expensive to reverse: anything after the tender package is issued, anything after certified drawings are submitted for consent, and anything after bespoke items are released to manufacture. A layout change at this point is not a drawing revision, it is a variation with a price and a date attached.
Ask for four things in writing before construction starts: the drawing register with revision numbers, the finishes schedule, the programme with long-lead items named, and the variation procedure — who can authorise a change, and how it is priced. A project with those four documents rarely produces an argument about what was agreed.
Our interior design pages list practices by their documented specialism and the projects they show, the specialism pages separate commercial work from residential, and the area pages show where each practice is based. Where a designer is based matters on commercial work, because site attendance is charged in hours and travel is hours.
Common questions
Do I need a permit for a commercial fit-out in Cyprus?
Not for interior work that keeps the same use, leaves the structure alone and does not alter the building envelope. You do once any of those three change. A change of use is assessed against the local plan and zoning by the Department of Town Planning and Housing, and structural work needs a building permit issued on drawings certified by a registered engineer.
How long does a commercial interior project take?
If no statutory consent is needed, the design stages plus construction. If planning permission and a building permit are needed, add them in sequence — around 150 days and around 120 days respectively as typical durations — and plan the business around that rather than around the fit-out.
Can an interior designer certify the drawings?
Only if they are registered with ETEK in the relevant discipline. Many practices work with an engineer or architect who certifies, which is a normal arrangement. What is not normal is finding out at submission that nobody in the team can sign.
Is site attendance included in the design fee?
Usually not. It is commonly a separate engagement, priced by visit or by period. Agree the frequency and the instruction route before construction starts, because an unattended commercial site is where specification quietly becomes whatever was easiest to install.
What is different about a seasonal property?
The closure window sets everything. In Ayia Napa and Protaras the refurbishment season is November to March, so design and consents have to be finished before it opens, and long-lead items ordered in autumn. A project that starts designing in January has already lost the year.
Interior designers and studios in Cyprus
8 companies covering this area.
Polart Construction
Strovolos Iii, Nicosia
Polart Construction is an architecture practice in Strovolos Iii, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Karyatides
Strovolos, Nicosia
Karyatides is an architecture practice in Strovolos, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Andreas Vlittis
Paralimni, Famagusta
Andreas Vlittis is an architecture practice in Paralimni, in the Famagusta district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Nicolaides Viana Partnership
Limassol Centre, Limassol
Nicolaides Viana Partnership is an architecture practice in Limassol Centre, in the Limassol district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
P. A. Constructions Ltd.
Engomi, Nicosia
P. A. Constructions Ltd. is an architecture practice in Engomi, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Andreas S. Hadjizacharias Ltd
Agios Nikolaos, Limassol
Andreas S. Hadjizacharias Ltd is an architecture practice in Agios Nikolaos, in the Limassol district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Uds Architects
Limassol Centre, Limassol
Uds Architects is an architecture practice in Limassol Centre, in the Limassol district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Fabretti Construction
Agioi Omologites, Nicosia
Fabretti Construction is an architecture practice in Agioi Omologites, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Sources
- ETEK — Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber — retrieved 2026-07-29
- Department of Town Planning and Housing — retrieved 2026-07-29
Thinking of doing this?Get up to five quotes, free.
Describe the project and we will gather proposals from designers who have done something similar.