Some 4878 construction permits for new buildings in Bulgaria have been issued for the third quarter of 2007, National Statistical Institute quoted.

3110 of them are given to residential property projects with a total number of apartments amounting to 18 050 and a gross actual area of 2 090 633 sq m, 114 permits were granted to administrative developments with a total built-up area of 75 515 sq m and 1654 were destined to other establishments with a gross actual area of 1 015 902 sq m.

Residential permits have recorded a 13.7 % mark-up as compared to the second quarter of the year and a16.87 % rise against the figures for the same period in 2006.

Administrative buildings registered a 34.1% increase as compared to the previous quarter and a 8.8 %drop on an annual basis.

Bourgas region continues to be the leader in terms of number of granted residential permits - 534 new apartment buildings will add 3954 new units to the market. Varna ranked second according to this criterion - 442 permits for 2628 flats, Sofia is third - 329 new buildings would deliver a total of 1403 apartments.

Blagoevgrad is fourth - 264 residential blocks, Plovdiv with its 258 permits comes next . More than 200 buildings are to spring up in Dobrich.

Vidin and Montana region received the smallest number of permits - 4 and 7, respectively.

As far as administrative projects, Plovdiv is again at the head of the chart with 20 permits, Blagoevgrad is second with 15, Pernik comes third with 12 new permits for administrative projects and Sofia was granted as much as 11.

source: Property Wise Bulgaria