The worst housing problem ever faced by Cyprus appeared after the invasion of 1974 when 38% of its territory was occupied by Turkish military forces. At that time 36,2% of the housing stock was lost and therefore 200.000 refugees had to be settled in the rest of the island. Until 1986 the Government of Cyprus managed to house nearly 50.000 of these people in various refugee estates, according to an intensive housing program. Out of this number, approximately 30% have been settled in multi-story family houses. Today 20-25 years after that ¨housing boom¨, and due to the specific technical, environmental and seismic conditions in Cyprus, as well as the change of the quality of the available building materials, many of these multi-story buildings face a variety of problems. The solutions decided vary from complete demolition to plain painting.