There were fewer permits and less investment.
By Escalin Well
El Inmobiliario
SANTO DOMINGO. - In the last quarter of 2024, a decrease was recorded in the total investment in building works in the Dominican Republic, as well as a decrease in permits granted for construction.
This is reflected in the "Bulletin of Statistics on Application and Issuance of Construction Licenses for Housing and Buildings" of the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mivhed) of that year.
In its report, the state agency detailed that during the period October-December there was an investment of $52,019.07 million pesos in approved construction projects, while in July-September they totaled RD$80,754,882,780.00 pesos.
“During the fourth quarter of 2024, the total investment valued in building works in the Dominican Republic amounted to $52,019.07 million Dominican pesos,” they stated.
Regarding the number of building permits issued, a total of 365 were granted, with an average approval time of 132 days. In contrast, the July-September quarter ended with 387 permits and an average delivery time of 136 days, according to the previous bulletin.
“During the fourth quarter of 2024, 365 permits were granted for the construction of residential, commercial and other projects,” they say.
“The indicators presented refer to the total number of licenses, square meters, the construction index, total investment in the work and annual variations of the licenses issued during the fourth quarter of 2024 (October – December), approved under construction licenses in the different typologies (houses, apartments, commercial and offices),” they explain in the document.
Details for the period October-December 2024
In the bulletin, the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings highlights that in October 155 licenses were issued nationwide, in November 134 and in December 76, for a total of 365 permits as previously specified.
In comparison to the fourth quarter of 2023, where 355 licenses were issued, the quarter of 2024 closed with a growth of 2.8% in the granting of this document.
Other information provided is about the construction index, which represents "the ratio between the land used for construction and the total square meters of the land.".
According to them, in the last quarter of 2024 an average construction index of 28.30% was reached in the country.
“This shows that there is a large amount of unused or underutilized space in relation to the total available area. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, which was 21.81%, there is a significant increase, suggesting greater land utilization,” they point out.
Provinces with the highest and lowest number of licenses granted
The Mivhed document details that the provinces with the highest number of approved licenses were: Santo Domingo with 80, the National District with 70 and Santiago with 67.
“This distribution reflects a relationship with population density, according to projections from the National Statistics Office for 2024, in which Santo Domingo and the National District show the largest projected populations (3,151,170 and 1,074,546, respectively),” they explain.
On the other hand, they named the provinces with the fewest license issues: Barahona, San José de Ocoa, Hato Mayor, Pedernales, Santiago Rodríguez, which only obtained one license each.
The bulletin specifies that 18 types of licenses are issued in the Dominican Republic, with residential project licenses being the most in demand at 73.15%. This is followed by commercial and office licenses at 10.41%, and "combined" type licenses at 5.48%.
“We found that the typology with the largest construction area was residential projects with 69.86%, followed by combined, commercial and office and special structures at 15.16%, 11.58% and 1.42% respectively,” they point out.
Investments by province of the country
According to their report on total investment in different types of building works, the National District leads the list with an investment of RD$ 13,149,077,656 Dominican pesos.
La Altagracia follows on the list with an investment of RD$10,508,802,876 in construction projects. Santiago ranks third with RD$8,671,554,091. Santo Domingo comes in fourth with a total investment of RD$7,099,895,088, and Duarte fifth with RD$3,393,096,564.
On the other hand, they address that the combined category reached an investment of RD$7,886,605,012; the commercial and office construction category of RD$6,022,206,247; the typology of special structures of RD$737,361,196; and the warehouse category of RD$440,671,660.
