The number of building licenses issued in Cyprus continues to decline.
One of the notable trends is the reduction in the number of large projects. Basically, these are high-rise buildings, which were intended for potential applicants of golden passports.
According to data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service on Tuesday, March 9, 648 building permits were issued by the municipal and district authorities in December 2020.
The total cost of these licenses was EUR 171.6 million, the total area was 164 thousand m2. These permits were issued for construction of 752 residential buildings.
7,023 building permits were issued on the island from January to December 2020, compared with 7,218 in 2019.
The total value of building permits issued in 2020 was EUR 2.71 billion, (compared with EUR 3.73 billion in 2019). It turns out that over the year, the total cost of licenses has decreased by 27.3%.
The number of permits for the construction of residential units in the period from January to December 2020 decreased by 3.5% compared with the same period last year, and their total area dropped by 12.6%.
Building permits for large projects have dropped to 645 in 2020 (compared with 682 in 2019). Their cost dropped to EUR 1.64 million, and the total area fell to 1.32 million m2 (compared with EUR 2.65 billion and 1.62 million m2 for the same period last year).
As for building permits for small projects, 6,738 were issued in 2020 (compared with 6,536 in the same period in 2019).
The cost of these licenses was EUR 1.07 billion, and the total area was 0.94 million m2. By the way, a year earlier these indicators were EUR 1.07 billion and 0.97 million m2.
It should be noted that a decrease in the number of licenses was recorded in 2020:
- in Limassol: by 16% (from 1961 to 1854)
- in Larnaca: by 14% (from 1020 to 871)
- and in Paphos: by 12.2% (from 974 to 855).
While in Famagusta and Nicosia, on the contrary, the number increased by 6% in Famagusta (from 2334 to 2477) and by 12.8% in the capital (from 282 to 318).