At the beginning of 2016 the vice president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) for the construction, transport and communications Mirjana Cagalj announced a recovery of construction activities in Croatia after seven years of the continuous decline in the construction business sector.
''The construction activity in the last seven years have been reduced by 46 percent, but this year we expect a recovery. Since 2009 the number of building permits was halved and 56,000 people lost their jobs. Seven year ago the construction sector accounted for 8.5 percent in GDP, and now only 5 percent, whilst this average in other EU member countries is 6 percent'', said Cagalj in January this year.
As expected, good news is on the horizon. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) in the first six months of this year 4,179 building permits were issued or 21,9 percent more over the same period in 2015. The total value of construction works covered by the permits issued in this period was 10.1 billion Kunas.
The data from DZS also show that this July in Croatia more than 500 building permits were issued, which was an increase of 16.6 percent in comparison to July 2015.
By type of construction around 87 percent or 483 permits were issued for buildings, whilst 13 percent or 72 permits were issued for other structures.
On the other hand, by type of work around 66 percent or 367 permits were issued for new buildings and 34 percent or 188 permits were issued for reconstruction, conversion and renovation.
By building permits issued in July almost 700 new building apartments of 100 sqm average size are expected to be built in the near future.
The total value of construction works covered by the permits issued in July is 1.39 billion Kunas.