Area of licensed buildings up 8pct in January-September of 2023

The total area of licensed buildings in the Kingdom increased by 8 percent in the January-September period of 2022 to reach 7.058 million square meters (MSM) against 6.538 MSM in the same period of 2022, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Department of Statistics (DoS). The data showed that the number of building licenses issued in the January-September period of the current year dropped by 3.7 percent to a total of 18,228 licenses compared with 18,928 licenses in the same period last year. The area of residential buildings rose to 5.86 MSM in the January-September period of the current year, marking a 7.9 percent rise from the 5.43 MSM recorded in the corresponding period of last year, the DoS said. Buildings licensed for housing purposes accounted for 83.1 percent of the total area of licensed buildings, leaving 16.9 percent to buildings used for non-housing purposes, according to the DoS. In its geographic breakdown of the data, the department said that the central region of the Kingdom accounted for 65.6 percent of the total area of licensed buildings, followed by the northern and southern regions at 25.8 and 2.8 percent, respectively. Source: Jordan News Agency