Building permits decline in April

But values still up

Nicosia prices rising fastest

The number of building permits authorised dropped by 1.5% on the year-earlier period in April, to 662, compared with 672 in April 2004. Building permits when measured by area fell even more sharply: by 3.9% year on year to 252 thousand metres squared. However, signs that this fall was an indirect consequence of higher prices comes from the figures on value, which show an increase of 1.4% in the same period.

These figures could imply that buyers are opting for smaller places but are paying more per square metre for them than they did in the same period last year.

In the January-April period, the value of permits authorise rose faster compared with the year-earlier period (18.0%) than the area (12.2%), while the number of permits rose by 6.8%.

Nicosia rising fastest

Values in Jan-Apr rose fastest in Nicosia, up by 36%, while they declined sharply in Ammochostos (a fall of 27%). The trend in Ammochostos could reflect the fact that prices in that part of Cyprus would have benefited most from a solution to the Cyprus problem, since it is close to the ghost town of Varosha, which would have seen a building boom.

Presumably prices rose, then fell, once it became clear that a solution was still a long way away.

Fiona Mullen