BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 20
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Despite a slow-down in economic activity, permits for residential construction remained solid overall in Georgia, TBC Research Group at Georgian TBC Bank told Trend.
As reported, in 9M2020, Tbilisi saw 149 newly issued building permits for multi-apartment and multi-functional blocks, accounting for 696,000 square meters of residential space (+2 percent year-on-year).
"Notably, permit issuance somewhat slowed down in 3Q2020. As of September 2020, the residential space approved for construction surpasses that of previous two years, but falls slightly behind compared to 2015, 2016 and 2017," the company said.
The districts with the largest number of apartment transactions are also the ones where the new supply is concentrated. Didi Dighomi, Saburtalo and Gldani account for 55 percent of total residential space approved for construction in 9M2020.
According to the company, as of 9M2020, the construction area was up in Saburtalo (+23 percent year-on-year), Nadzaladevi (+63 percent), Krtsanisi (+14 percent), Isani (+3 percent) and Chughureti (+86 percent), down in Didi Dighomi (-16 percent), Gldani (-4 percent), Samgori (-20 percent), Vake (-11 percent) and Didube (-8 percent).
Tbilisi residential market posted growth in September 2020, featuring up to 3,300 residential property transactions (+5.9 percent year-on-year) with 219,000 square meter area sold (+5.8 percent year-on-year).
In 9M2020, Tbilisi residential market featured circa 19,300 transactions, encompassing a total of circa 1.3 million square meter area, down by -29 percent and -30 percent year-on-year, respectively
"Notably, the transaction growth rate of old apartments increased in September to -1 percent year-on-year, up from -26 percent in August, whereas the growth rate for new apartments rose to 10 percent in September, up from -12 percent in August," the report said.
New apartments account for the larger share of transactions in Tbilisi. Compared to August, the proportion of new apartments remained stable in September 2020, standing at 66 percent (+3pp year-on-year) as measured by the number of units, and increased marginally to 67 percent (+3pp year-on-year) as measured by total area of sold apartments
Sales are down in all districts as of 9M 2020, with the sharpest declines of sold units observed in Chughureti (-43 percent year-on-year), Saburtalo (-40 percent year-on-year), and Mtatsminda (-39 percent year-on-year).
Gldani and Samgori were relatively resilient. In these districts, number of transactions decreased by 11 percent year-on-year and by 21 percent year-on-year respectively.
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