Building permits issued and construction started - First quarter of 2026

In the first quarter of 2026, the municipal authorities issued building permits for the construction of 2 302 residential buildings with 13 567 dwellings and 1 735 449 sq. m gross building area, 13 administrative buildings/offices with 6 762 sq. m gross building area, and 1 218 other buildings with 640 381 sq. m gross building area.

Compared to the previous quarter, the issued building permits for residential buildings decreased by 5.1%, their dwellings - by 13.3% and the gross building area - by 3.4%. The issued building permits for administrative buildings and their gross building area decreased by 7.1% and by 50.0%, respectively. The issued building permits for other buildings fell by 6.8%, as did their gross building area - by 16.8%.

Compared to the first quarter of 2025, the issued building permits for new residential buildings increased by 10.5%, their dwellings - by 28.3%, and the gross building area - by 33.3%. The issued building permits for administrative buildings and their gross building area went up by 8.3% and 81.6%, respectively. The issued building permits for other buildings grew by 12.8% and their gross building area - by 4.5%.

The highest number of building permits for new residential buildings was issued in the following districts: Plovdiv - 368, Sofia - 287, Sofia (stolitsa) - 265, Varna - 200 and Burgas - 169. Most dwellings are to be built in the districts: Sofia (stolitsa) - 3 948, Plovdiv - 2 235, Burgas - 2 018, Varna - 1 200, and Ruse - 591 (Annex, Table 1).

In the first quarter of 2026, the construction of 1 649 residential buildings with 10 193 dwellings and 1 168 008 sq. m gross building area, 11 administrative buildings/offices with 8 881 sq. m gross building area, and 594 other buildings with 355 460 sq. m gross building area began.

Compared to the previous quarter, the started residential buildings fell by 7.5%, but their dwellings increased by 11.1% and the gross building area - by 0.4%. The started administrative buildings and their gross building area registered an increase of 83.3% and 196.1%, respectively. The started other buildings reduced by 8.6%, and their gross building area - by 26.0%.

Compared to the first quarter of 2025, the number of started new residential buildings increased by 15.2%, their dwellings - by 67.4%, and the gross building area - by 58.1%.  The number of started administrative buildings decreased by 8.3%, but their gross building area went up by 26.0%. The construction of 3.1% more other buildings has started with a 38.1% less gross building area.

The construction of the highest number of new buildings was started in the following districts: Plovdiv - 288 residential buildings and 100 other buildings; Sofia (stolitsa) - 312 residential buildings and 22 other buildings; Sofia - 174 residential buildings and 49 other buildings (Annex, Table 2).

Methodological notes

The quarterly statistical survey of permits issued for construction collects information about building permits issued by municipal authorities as well as for the started construction of new buildings according to their type and gross building area. This information may be used as an indicator of the future construction activity of enterprises in the country.

Types of buildings are classified according to the Classification of types of construction (CC) and are divided into:

• Residential - buildings for which the useful floor area is mostly used for permanent residential habitation.
• Non-residential - buildings for various purposes, including:

 - administrative - offices and buildings for administrative work of departments and other organizations and associations (representative buildings - banks, post offices, government department offices, conference and congress centres, low courts, municipalities);

 - other buildings - buildings used for different activities: production, trade, transport, education, culture, sports, agriculture, health, recreation and facilities for a short stay (hotels, motels, rest houses, huts and others).

Gross building area - a sum of all floors’ areas in external dimensions.

Annex

Table 1

Table 2