New development applications filed with the Planning Authority have been in decline for two months in a row since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The bigger drop was registered in April – of nearly a third compared to the same month in 2019.

According to official figures supplied by the PA, 817 applications were submitted in March, when the outbreak started, and 684 in April.

This translates into an 18 per cent drop for March and a 29 per cent decline in April compared to the same months last year.

According to the PA’s latest annual report, a total of 12,173 applications were submitted in 2018, averaging around 1,000 per month.

Construction was spared when other sectors, such as tourism and non-essential outlets, bore the brunt of restrictions put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus in March.

The downward trend in applications, however, shows that the industry, which was booming before the pandemic, has not been immune to the general economic uncertainty.

The drop was registered both for full development applications and for smaller projects covered by development notification orders (DNOs) and regularisation applications.

In March, the number of DNOs submitted fell by 19 per cent and in April by 38 per cent.

An even bigger drop was registered in regularisation applications, intended to sanction minor building irregularities.

In March they fell by 45 per cent and in April by 56 per cent.