Cyprus construction sector succumbs to slowdown
Building permits down for fourth straight month
After robust growth for most of 2007, the Cyprus construction sector appears to have succumbed to the global slowdown in the housing market.
In January the number of building permits authorised fell by 6.9% to 687 in January 2008, compared with 738 in the same month of 2007.
This was the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year decline.
Since there has been a shift in recent years to the construction of apartments rather than houses in Cyprus, a fall in the number of building permits authorised does not always entail a slowdown in the sector.
However, in this instance, it probably does, since the area of permits authorised fell in January by 5.3% to 249,822,000 square metres. The area of building permits authorised has fallen in three out of the past four months.
The value of building permits authorised in Cyprus also fell in January, reaching €193,174,000 compared with €203,248,000 in January 2007. After more than a year of increases, the value of permits authorised has fallen year on year in two out of the past four months.
FINANCIAL MIRROR
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