New Military Homes Delivered in Cyprus

46 properties handed over at Dhekelia Station mark the opening phase of a 138-home contract, with wider operational infrastructure investment across four Sovereign Base Area sites still to follow.

Forty-six new service family accommodation properties have been completed and handed over at Dhekelia Station in Cyprus, marking the first milestone of the APOLLO investment initiative – a decade-long programme of estate modernisation across the British Forces Cyprus Sovereign Base Areas being delivered by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and Cyber and Specialist Operations Command.

The homes were built by the Lagan Iacovou Joint Venture under a £48 million contract awarded in 2023. The remaining 92 properties will follow in subsequent phases, with all 138 homes across the programme built as three- or four-bedroom properties designed specifically for the Cyprus environment.

The technical specification reflects both the demands of the location and the MoD’s broader estate decarbonisation direction. Seismic resilience is built into the structural design to address Cyprus’ known earthquake risk. Comfort-cooling systems manage the practical realities of high summer temperatures. Solar panels, air source heat pumps and electric vehicle charging points are included as standard – a sustainability package that mirrors the specification now being applied across domestic defence housing programmes and signals that low-carbon design is a baseline requirement across the MoD’s global estate, not just in the UK.

APOLLO spans four sites – Episkopi, Akrotiri, Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolaos – and its scope extends well beyond housing into operational and enabling infrastructure across the Sovereign Base Areas. That broader pipeline, which will materialise progressively across the programme’s ten-year timeframe, encompasses the full range of defence estate construction requirements and represents a sustained overseas workstream for contractors and supply chain businesses with the relevant capability.

Lagan Iacovou Project Director Luke Carolan credited the whole project team, including subcontractors and supply chain partners, alongside the collaborative approach of the DIO and CSOC client teams and station staff, as central to reaching the first milestone on programme.

For construction businesses, the Dhekelia handover is significant less as a standalone contract and more as confirmation that APOLLO is moving through its delivery phases. The combination of overseas construction logistics, seismic engineering requirements, climate-adapted design and low-carbon systems integration narrows the field of contractors well-positioned to compete for subsequent packages – but for those that are, the pipeline is both technically varied and long in duration.

Capability areas relevant to this programme include: overseas defence construction, seismically resilient structural design, climate-adapted residential build, low-carbon building systems, solar PV and heat pump installation, EV charging infrastructure, defence estate fit-out, and specialist subcontract packages for remote site delivery.