Area of licensed buildings declines by 11% in first five 2024 months – DoS

AMMAN — The Department of Statistics (DoS) on Monday said that the area of licensed buildings in the Kingdom witnessed a decline of 11 per cent during the first five months of 2024, dropping from 3.711 million square metres in the same period of 2023 to 3.303 million square metres.

The total number of building licences issued in the country during the January-May period of the year also experienced a decrease to 8,714 licenses compared with 9,786 licenses issued in the corresponding period of 2023.

The area allocated for housing construction totalled 2.647 million square metres in the first five months of 2024, marking a decrease of 16.7 per cent compared with 3.179 million square metres recorded in the same period last year, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

DoS noted that the total area of buildings licensed for non-residential purposes witnessed an increase of 23.1 per cent, rising from around 533,000 square metres in the January-May period of 2023 to 656,000 square metres in the corresponding period of 2024.

Housing construction accounted for the majority of licensed buildings, comprising 80.1 per cent of the total licensed area, according to the department’s data.

The central region accounted for the largest portion of the licensed building area at 68.8 per cent, followed by the north at 22.7 per cent and the south at 8.5 per cent.

Data showed that in May, the number of building permits issued totalled 1,984, while the area of licensed buildings reached 773,000 square metres, marking a drop of 7.9 per cent compared with May 2023, when the area of licensed buildings stood at 839,000 square metres.