TIRANA, Oct. 6 – Construction permits issued in the second quarter of 2015 in the run up to the June local elections registered a sharp increase especially in Tirana and Durres, the country’s largest regions where more than a third of the country’s 2.8 million resident population is concentrated.
Data published by the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT, shows some 99 construction permits were issued in the second quarter of 2015 of which 64 in Tirana and 23 in Durres, mostly non-residential buildings, including hotels, commercial centres and industrial facilities.
Local government units issued 113 construction permits in the first half of this year ahead of the territorial reforms which cut the number of units to 61 municipalities down from 380 municipalities and communes ahead of the June 2015 local elections.
Construction permits in the first half of 2014 when local government units were banned to issue permits was at 97.
The number of annual construction permits has seen a sharp decline in the past three years dropping to a few hundred down from more than 1,000 annually before 2011.
INSTAT data shows the number of construction permits dropped to 270 in 2014, down from 360 in 2013, 1,604 in 2011 and 1492 in 2008 just before the onset of the global financial crisis when construction industry was at its peak level.
The long-ailing construction sector, which has been in crisis since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, surprisingly had the major 1.96 percentage point contribution in the second quarter of 2015 when Albania held local elections.
