The thesis explores the duality of the spatial governance and planning systems of Cyprus. The latter is intended as a peculiar institutional technology that allows the interaction between the state and the market, aimed at steering and regulating spatial transformations. More in detail, the thesis will focus on the nexus between the provision of land-use rights and a number of other processes and regulations that contribute to influence spatial transformations in the two sides of the island, aiming at pointing out similarities and differences between the two systems and to compare their outcomes.