Building permits issued in June spiked by 150% year-on-year as issuing authorities rushed to tackle backlog cases ahead of the reform of Local Authorities which transferred the permit issuing authority from municipalities and the district administration offices to the newly founded Local Government Organisations.

According to data released on Thursday by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat), the number of building permits authorized by the municipal authorities and the district administration offices during June 2024 stood at 1,528 compared with just 610 in June last year.

The total value of these permits reached €781.6 million and the total area 594.9 thousand square metres. These building permits provide for the construction of 2,772 dwelling units, Cystat added.

According to Cystat, the noteworthy increase in the number of building permits issued in June 2024 is to a large extent the result of the efforts made by the issuing authorities to process a large part of the backlog of applications, in view of the transfer, as from July 1st, 2024, of the authority of issuing building permits from the municipalities and the district administration offices to the newly founded Local Government Organisations.

Furthermore, during the period January – June 2024, 4,782 building permits were issued compared to 3,608 in the corresponding period of the previous year, recording an increase of 32.5%.

The total value of these permits increased by 44.4% to €2.04 billion and the total area by 46.5%. The number of dwelling units recorded an increase of 44.4%, Cystat said.