The significance of the residential building sector in terms of energy consumption is well acknowledged. Several studies have shown that the potential of energy savings in this sector is quite significant. In this view the knowledge of the way the residential building stock of Cyprus behaves in terms of energy consumption is quite valuable. This knowledge will assist policy makers to formulate targeted measures aiming the improvement of energy efficiency and will provide valuable information for setting current legal standards and benchmarks in the energy performance certificate, a requirement of the 2002/91/EC Directive. Unfortunately, the existing knowledge on this subject is quite poor. As a remedy a research project supported by a national research grant is in operation since December 2008. This paper presents the outline, goals and methodology of this research project and the findings regarding the energy behaviour and other characteristics of the residential building stock of Cyprus. From the analysis of the results for about 500 residential buildings examined, it seems that the energy demand and primary energy required is lower than that of other European countries. Moreover, it seems that the age of residential buildings has low correlation with the energy demand. Finally, in contrast with other 1