Residential building licenses in Romania up 12.9% y/y in the first half of 2008

The number of construction licenses for residential buildings hiked 12.9 percent in the first half of the year against the same period in the previous, according to the National Statistics Institute (INS).

As many as 29,394 licenses were released in the first semester. Developers in Southern Romania have the biggest number of constructions in sight, up 965, followed by the Bucharest-Ilfov region (815), the Central region (576) and the Northwestern region (550).

About 6,137 authorizations were released in June, up 6 percent against the same month in the previous year and down 2.4 percent versus May, out of which 59.9 percent in the rural area.

The number of construction licenses for residential buildings stood at 56,618 in 2007, 10.9 percent increase against 2006.