AMMAN — The Department of Statistics (DoS) said on Thursday that the area of licensed buildings in the Kingdom witnessed a decline of 12 per cent during the first four months of 2024, dropping from 2.872 million square metres in the same period of 2023 to 2.53 million square metres.

 

The total number of building licences issued in the country during the January-April period of the year also experienced a decrease of 11.7 per cent, totalling 6,730 licenses compared with 7,624 licenses issued in the corresponding period of 2023.

 

The area allocated for housing construction totalled 2.027 million square metres in the first third of 2024, marking a decrease of 18.5 per cent compared with 2.487 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 30 per cent, rising from around 386,000 square metres in the January-April period of 2023 to 503,000 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 67.7 per cent, followed by the north at 23.6 per cent and the south at 8.7 per cent.

 

Data showed that in April, the number of building permits issued totalled 1,649, while the area of licensed buildings reached 1.619 million square metres, marking a decrease of 14.7 per cent compared with March 2023, when the area of licensed buildings stood at 1.899 million square metres.