H2 2009: seeds of recovery in construction branch?

2010-02-01



The downturn on the construction branch in 2009 lasted around six months – in the second half of last year the sector exhibited clear signs of revival, according to the Chief Inspector of the General Office of Building Control (GUNB), as cited by PAP.
In the opinion of the GUNB, around 5% more construction permits will be issued this year than in 2009. Last year was worse than 2008 with respect to the number of construction permits issued, although the situation varied from region to region. One of the regions where the number of construction permits issued declined the least was Lubelskie voivodship, while in regions like Lower Silesia this indicator plummeted.
In the case of single-and multi-family construction, the number of construction permits issued decreased by 12% and 21%, respectively, in 2009 compared with the previous year. In the case of industrial and warehouse buildings the drop was 16%, and in the case of utility buildings it was 8%. There was a slight increase in the number construction investments begun in the water engineering, public utility construction and transport infrastructure sectors.
According to GUNB data, legalising decisions were down by around 51% to stand at 681, most of which, i.,e. 244, were reported in Mazowieckie voivodship. In 2009 the Office imposed fines worth in total PLN 51m (€12.7m) for the illegal use of buildings and structures. Last year, the number of demolition orders for buildings that could not be legalised or for technical or legal reasons rose by 14% – there were 5,823 such orders in 2009.

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