Ammon News - The total area of buildings licensed in the first third of 2023 climbed by 24.1 percent to 2.872 million square meters (sqm) against 2.314 million sqm in the same period of 2022, according to official figures.

The Department of Statistics (DoS) said Thursday that the number of new building licenses issued in the first four months of this year increased by 9.2 percent to a total of 7,624 licenses, compared with 6,983 licenses in the same period of last year.

Similarly, the area of buildings licensed for residential purposes jumped by 27.7 percent to 2.486 million sqm, against 1.947 million sqm during the same period last year, the figures showed.

As for buildings licensed for non-residential purposes, their area jumped to about 386,000 sqm, up by a slight 5.2 percent, compared to about 367,000 sqm for the same period last year, according to the figures.

Buildings licensed for residential purposes accounted for 86.6 percent of the total area of certified buildings, leaving 13.4 percent for buildings used for non-residential purposes, according to the DoS.

In its geographic breakdown of the data, the department said that the Kingdom's central region accounted for 68.7 percent of the total area of licensed buildings, followed by the northern and southern regions at 23.5 and 7.8 percent, respectively.