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THE GOVERNMENT said yesterday it would step up its campaign to warn foreigners about the illegality of buying property in the north, following an exposé in The Observer on a rush by Britons to buy homes there.

Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said an information campaign was already under way, stressing to foreigners that anyone who bought property in the north illegally would lose their money.

"The Cyprus government has on an ongoing basis, been informing people from abroad, and especially Britons, on the huge dangers of such transactions and the consequences to well-meaning people, who may fall victim to crooks trying to obtain gains by trading in Greek Cypriot properties in the north," Papapetrou said.

"Because of this report, the effort will be renewed and intensified and we will also repeat the message that anyone who 'buys' property from a non-legal owner is in no way secure and ultimately will lose their money."

According to Sunday's Observer, the number of estate agents catering to foreigners in the north has risen from three to 15, prompting a rush on to buy up homes.

The paper quoted a representative from the British-owned estate agency Unwin, Stacey Taneri, as saying "there should be no fears over legal ownership".

"We have a good lawyer who can arrange everything with the title deeds because now the properties belong to Turkish Cypriots. The Greeks will never come back. The Turkish army is very strong," Taneri said.

An Observer reporter visiting occupied Bellapais was given a tour by one Briton of his newly acquired £42,000 villa. "My villa came fully furnished. I had plates, cutlery even a bed to sleep on. Of course it was pretty poignant finding the former owner's X-rays and seeing all the family pictures on the wall," he said.

Asked if he knew who the previous owner had been, he said: "Some Greek who obviously left in a hurry. But it will be over my dead body that he gets this house back."

The Observer said there were more than 1,000 Britons living in the north and that no more than 25 had homes there before the island was divided.

"So many tin-pot regimes are recognised around the world but not northern Cyprus, which has a freely elected government," said one outraged Briton Julia Price, chairman of the British Residents' Society in the north.

"It's a beautiful part of the world," said Lord Kilclooney of Armagh.

"No international aid has been put into the Turkish side, which is outrageous," said the British peer, who heads the Friends of Northern Cyprus parliamentary group. However, one Labour MP told the paper that the hospitality offered was "enough to make one feel quite uneasy".

According to the Unwin estate agency website there are four types of title deeds in the north: 'Foreign Title', 'Turkish Title', 'Turkish prior to 1974' and 'TRNC Title', the latter referring to pre-1974 Greek-owned property.

To purchase a Turkish or TRNC title property, there are a number of checks carried out by the regime and the property is usually leased to the 'buyer' for 49 years.

Attorney-general Alecos Markides said yesterday there was no legality whatsoever in these transactions.

"If the (Observer) report is accurate, these people will find themselves exposed one day," he said. "We have looked into this issue repeatedly and studied it and unfortunately there is no way legally to stop these transactions."

He said the rights of Greek Cypriot refuges to their property in the north had already been established by the European Court of Human Rights' ruling on the Titina Loizidou case.

"For this reason, all those who are planning to buy land from people that don't have titles should bear in mind that they are at risk of losing their money," he said.

A source at the British High Commission told the Cyprus Mail that they advised Britons asking about buying property in the north, although they did not interfere with their final decision. "We don't tell them to buy or not to buy," the source said. "Only that there are certain implications involved in buying property in the north.""