In the last quarter of 2008, local administration in Bulgaria have issued 2,452 residential building permits for 12,881 residential units, 100 office building permits and 1,530 permits for other types of buildings.

The data has been published by the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute (NSI).

Compared to the previous quarter, the number of residential building permits has been reduced by 10,6% and the number of units in them by 2,3%. Office buildings are 20,6% less compared to the third quarter of 2008 while other buildings register a 5,0% increase.

Compared to the last quarter of 2007, the number of residential building permits has been reduced by 15% and the number of units in them by 33,6%. Office buildings are 31% less than the last quarter of 2007 while other buildings register a 5,0% decrease.

The trend of issuing a significant number of residential building permits in bigger cities such as Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas, continues to be observed during the last quarter of 2008.