Marsascala is set to bear the brunt of the current building boom, with the biggest number of building permits for residences issued in the last quarter of 2022.

Figures issued on Tuesday by the National Statistics Office show that between September and December last year, the authorities issued 357 building permits for a total of 2,064 new dwellings across Malta.

Dwellings approved in Malta and Gozo increased by 35.0 per cent and 26.5 per cent respectively. 

The highest number of approved new dwellings (203) was in Marsascala, followed by Victoria, Gozo, (188), St Paul's Bay (185), Marsaxlokk (132) and Siġġiewi (97).

On a regional basis,  the highest number of approved new dwellings was in the South Eastern district (515) while the lowest number was recorded in the Western district.

Most of the new dwellings approved during the last quarter of 2022 were apartments (1,417), followed by penthouses (343), maisonettes (201), terraced houses (94) and other residential units1 (9) (Table 1).

Apartments accounted for 68.7 per cent of the total number of approved new dwellings.

The number of permits for new dwellings was up by a third at the last quarter of 2022.

The NSO explained that while the number of building permits increased by just 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2022, the number of approved new dwellings increased by 33.2 per cent over the same period compared to 2021. That means that the average number of new dwellings per building permit stood at 5.8.