Cyprus building permits boom in March

The Cyprus construction sector is still going strong, with both the value and size of building permits authorised booming in March compared with the same month of the previous year.

The total value of building permits authorised rose by 35.4% year on year to CYP 130 mln, while the total area in metres squared rose by 27.8% to 331,000. This compares with growth in the actual number of permits of just 4.5% year on year, indicating that bigger projects are currently favoured.

Indeed, in the first three months of 2005, the number of big projects (larger than 900 m2) rose by 47.2% compared with the same period of the previous year, while the number of small projects rose by just 5.9%.

Demand for residential apartment blocks is rising fastest, up by 72.9% year on year in the first quarter, while office buildings were up 22.2% year on year.