Last quarter of 2023 sees 37% drop in number of approved dwellings – NSO

During the last quarter of 2023 a total of 1,292 new dwellings were approved, registering a decrease of 37.4 per cent when compared to the same quarter in 2022, the NSO said Tuesday.

Approved residential building permits and dwellings

Building permits are authorisations to initiate new building projects. The objective of these statistics is to indicate the future development of construction activity in terms of the number of approved new dwellings.

During the last quarter of 2023, 321 building permits were approved, for a total of 1,292 new dwellings throughout the year. When compared to the corresponding quarter of 2022, the number of building permits decreased by 10.1 per cent while the number of approved new dwellings decreased by 37.4 per cent. The average number of approved new dwellings per building permit stood at 4.0.

Approved new dwellings by type

The majority of new dwellings approved during the last quarter of 2023 were apartments (859), followed by penthouses (216), maisonettes (125), terraced houses (76) and other residential units1 (16). Apartments accounted for 66.5 per cent of the total number of approved new dwellings.

Approved new dwellings by district

When compared to the corresponding quarter of 2022, the number of new dwellings approved in Malta decreased by 34.1 per cent while those in

Gozo and Comino decreased by 51.0 per cent. The highest number of approved new dwellings was registered in the Northern Harbour district (466) while the lowest number was recorded in the Southern Harbour district (101).

Approved new dwellings by locality

The highest number of approved new dwellings were issued in San Ġwann (73). This was followed by San Pawl IlBaħar (66), Il-Ħamrun (64), In-Nadur (59) and Iż-Żurrieq (59).