Bulgaria Residential Construction Down 45% in 3Q 2009

NSI data shows significant reduction in Bulgaria's residential and office building construction in the last quarter of 2009. File Photo

Construction permits for residential buildings issued in Bulgaria in the last quarter of 2009 are down 45% while housing units inside them are down 70% year on year.

The data was published by the National Statistics Institute (NSI) Monday.

There is a significant reduction in office buildings construction as well – permits are down 37%.

1 343 residential permits have been issued between October and December 2009 for a total of 3 900 apartments. The most permits – 155 have been issued for the Burgas Region, followed by the cities of Sofia – 150, Plovdiv – 143, and Varna - 128. The most residential units, however, will be built in Sofia – 773 and Varna – 604.

63 permits for office buildings have been issued in the last quarter of 2009, the most of them in the city of Blagoevgrad – 11, followed by the city of Dobrich – 8.

Last week, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published data showing the largest construction decreases in the EU for 2009 were registered in Bulgaria (-33,3%) .

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