TIRANA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian authorities issued a total of 101 permits for new residential buildings in the first quarter of this year compared to only 65 approved same quarter of last year, data from Albanian statistical office showed Friday.
For the first quarter of this year, the approximate value of constructions with approved permits approved was nearly 10 billion leks, from 2.7 billion leks that it had been in the first quarter of last year.
Experts from the Institute of Statistics told reporters that building permits had begun an upward trend since the second half of last year, when the number of permits approved was 292, five times more compared with the second half of 2015.
According to experts, the significant increase in the number of building permits came as a result of the lifting of moratorium which suspended new building permits in capital city as well as adoption of online permitting system which made it easier for builders to apply.
The real estate market here has begun to recover following a stalemate for several years, caused by the crisis and a kind of market saturation in specific areas.
Meantime, in terms of purpose, the number of approved permits for residential buildings accounted for 75 percent of the total, while 25 percent of permits were for buildings with commercial or industrial purposes.
The highest number of new constructions in the first quarter was issued in Albania's capital Tirana and coastal city of Vlora, southern Albania. (1 U.S. dollar = 116.16 Albanian leks)
