If you are buying or importing a car to Cyprus and do not want to end up with the first available registration number, there is good news: a nice combination can be officially chosen yourself through the Road Transport Department (RTD).
No intermediary is needed for this. But there is one nuance I did not understand right away myself: Cypriot “beautiful numbers” do not work quite like British private plates. Here, you cannot invent your own combination of letters and numbers. The letter series is assigned by the system, and you choose the numeric part of the plate — for example, 001, 111, 777, or another available combination.
And the nicer the numbers, the more interesting the process becomes.
How to buy a plate in Cyprus
Everything starts with registration in the online system of the Road Transport Department. After that, there are two scenarios.
The first is an auction. When RTD opens a new series of registration numbers, the most interesting combinations can be obtained through electronic bidding.
You choose a number, place a bid, and take part in the auction. The starting bid is €50, but you should not think of that as the price of the plate. If several people want a certain 777, the final cost is determined by demand.
So before bidding, I would decide right away how much that combination is worth to me personally. Beautiful numbers are a nice detail of a car, but it is quite easy to get carried away at an auction here.
There is an easier way
And I like it more.
Plates that were not sold during the auction may become available for direct purchase after it ends. For this, the Road Transport Department has a separate official online service — Purchase of vehicle registration number. And if you do not specifically need 001 or 777, I would look here first.
Among the remaining combinations, you can often find a symmetrical, memorable, or simply beautiful number — without competing for the most obvious options. If numbers do not matter to you at all, nothing needs to be bought: during standard registration, the car will simply be assigned a number from the current series.
A number and a number plate are different things
Another point, and this is where it is easy to get confused. When you “buy a number,” you are getting the right to a specific registration combination, not a ready-made metal plate. First, the number is officially assigned to the car through RTD, and only after that are the actual plates made. So there is no point in ordering beautiful plates in advance.
Can you keep the number when changing cars?
And this is where it is especially important not to rely on British experience.
In Cyprus, a beautiful registration number is not a transferable private plate in the British sense. After registration, the combination is tied to a specific car and does not become a separate asset of the owner that can be freely moved from one vehicle to another.
So if the number matters to you, it is better to sort this out during the car registration process. This is especially relevant for imported cars.
What if the car came from the UK or Japan?
The principle is the same.
When an imported car is first registered in Cyprus, it is assigned a Cypriot registration number. That is why this is the stage when it makes sense to check the current RTD series in advance and see which combinations are available.
Personally, I would do exactly that: first find the right car, and before registering it, check the current numbers. If there is a really great combination, I would take part in the auction. If not, I would look at what is left for direct sale.
And I definitely would not overpay just because the number consists of three identical digits.
Sometimes 707, 505, or a combination with personal meaning looks no worse on a car than a typical 777.
So what is the bottom line?
You can buy a beautiful car number plate in Cyprus yourself online through the Road Transport Department. The most sought-after combinations go through auction, and unsold numbers may then become available for direct purchase.
The main thing is to think about it before the car is finally assigned a standard registration number.
And if you are currently choosing a car, we import carefully selected premium cars from the UK and Japan to Cyprus, paying special attention to the condition, quality, and transparency of each car’s history. You can view the current catalog and choose your car at this link.
