Cyprus building permits down for ninth month in June

The number of building permits authorised in Cyprus declined over the year earlier for the ninth consecutive month in June, reaching 779, compared with 880 in June 2007.
The area of building permits also fell by 19.5% to 244,689 square metres, compared with 304,133 in the same month of 2007. This was the fifth consecutive month of decline.
Developers’ attempts to keep up profit margins can be seen in a shift in the kind of building being planned, as the value of building permits authorised actually rose compared with the year earlier, to EUR 244.7 mln, compared with EUR 232.9 mln in the same month of June 2007. However, this followed a steep fall in the previous month and an erratic year.
For the period January-June, the value of building permits authorised was up down by 6.8% over the year earlier, while the number of permits was down 14.5% and the area down 8.7%.
A shift to building more units on less land is evident from the fact that the number of apartment blocks authorised was up by 13.8% in the same period but the number of single houses was down 20.4% and the number of two-dwelling houses (semi-detached) was down 49.3%.
By value, Larnaca and Paphos held up. The value of building permits authorised for Larnaca rose in the first six months of the year by 6.9% to EUR 271.9 mln and the value for Paphos rose by 5.0% to EUR 256.1 mln.
By contrast, permits for Limassol (Lemesos) dropped by 12.4% to EUR 314.4 mln, and Nicosia (Lefkosia) fell by 12.8% to EUR 429.7 mln.
Permits for Ayia Napa in the east, which is cut off from any urban centre because of the division of the island, were down 38.4% to EUR 100.7 mln.

Fiona Mullen
Director, Sapienta Economics Ltd