By the end of the first quarter of 2021, the total area of licensed buildings reached 1.962 million square metres, compared with 1.275 million square metres during the same period of 2020, marking a 53.9 per cent increase, according to official figures.

The Department of Statistics (DoS) said on Sunday that the total number of building licences issued in the Kingdom rose by 62.7 per cent during the January-March period when compared with the same period of 2020, reaching 6,732 licences, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The area of housing buildings totalled 1.734 million square metres in the first three months of 2021, compared with 1.094 million square metres in the same period last year, registering an increase of 58.5 per cent, the DoS said.

The DoS stated in its report that the total area of buildings licensed for non-residential purposes showed a hike of 26 per cent, amounting to some 228,000 square metres in the first three months of 2021 compared with around 181,000 square metres in the same period last year.

Licensed buildings for housing comprised 88.4 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, according to the department.

The central region of the Kingdom registered 61.8 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, while the north recorded 29.3 per cent and the south witnessed only 8.9 per cent, according to the DoS.