Vlora holds the record with 65% of apartments in empty buildings, Durrës 58%

2024-11-14 11:03:00, Aktualitet CNA

Vlora holds the record with 65% of apartments in empty buildings, Durrës

Across the country, 40% of apartment buildings were unoccupied according to the 2023 Census results, but in some counties, mainly coastal ones, this number was higher.

Vlora County topped the ranking as around 64.6% of apartments in buildings were empty at the time the count took place. In Vlora, there were over 54,700 apartments in buildings, of which 35,300 were empty. In the coastal city there are many apartments that are used as second homes by residents in Albania and expats living abroad.

Durrës also had high levels of empty apartments. The 2023 census verified that in this district there were 58% of the apartments in empty buildings. Of the 46.9 thousand flats in buildings in the Durrës District, more than 27.2 thousand were empty at the time the Census was conducted.

Even Durrës, like Vlora, has access to buildings as second homes for other citizens of the country and immigrants. Even the district of Lezha, due to the massive development of buildings with buildings in the Shengjin area, which serve as second homes, has 47% empty.

The Korça region also had 40% of empty apartment entries. The lowest level of empty apartments was in Dibër and Kukës with 17 and 21% each. In these districts, the housing in empty buildings has been created by emigration and the displacement of the population to the center of the country.

Tirana has 30% of apartments in buildings, empty.

Vlora holds the record with 65% of apartments in empty buildings, Durrës

According to Cens data, there are 431,000 apartments in buildings across the country, of which 170,264 are empty and over 261,000 were occupied.

Empty housing is an asset of billions of euros that has been frozen in the form of an investment that does not generate income and employment.

According to them, the stock of empty housing was created by the emigration of families who did not plan to rent. While most of the stock belongs to the investments made by individuals inside and outside the country. Often properties bought for investment and not rented out are part of a chain used to launder ill-gotten gains.

As the construction sector is oversupplied for housing, the Land Regulation Council issued permits for the construction of towers up to 100 stories last month.

In contrast, while housing supply increases, the country's population is shrinking rapidly from high immigration and declining births. According to Cens 2011 data, the country's population shrank by 14.8 percent or over 400 thousand people./ Monitor.al