August 21 (SeeNews) - The number of building permits issued in Bulgaria in the second quarter of 2008 fell by 7.0% on the year to 4,335, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) said on Thursday.
The number of permits issued in the second quarter rose by 23.7% from the first quarter, NSI said in a statement.
Most of the permits issued in April through June - 2,694, were allocated to housing projects, up 19% from the previous quarter. The rest of the permits were for office buildings and other projects.
The permits issued in the second quarter covered the construction of 11,899 apartments with a total built-up area of some 1.65 million square metres, compared to 1.6 million square metres of apartments greenlighted in the previous quarter.
Bulgaria’s real estate market has been in the focus of both domestic and foreign investors in recent years, mainly due to the stable growth outlook related to the country’s accession to the European Union in 2007.