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Municipalities granted permits for 1.3 million m² for construction in 2025, KKT decisions are a mystery; Tirana is "hidden"

2026-02-27 12:44:00, Ekonomi CNA

Municipalities granted permits for 1.3 million m² for construction in 2025,

INSTAT has reported data on permits issued in the country, where again the information is incomplete, as only data for municipalities is provided.

Meanwhile, the permits granted by the National Council for Territory and Water, which is the main institution that grants permits for large projects and multi-story buildings, continue to remain a mystery, having granted numerous permits, both for skyscrapers in the capital and tourist resorts on the coast.

For almost a year, there has been no information on the size of construction permits in the country, while the entire country has turned into a construction site.

Municipalities alone issued 1.3 million square meters of building permits in 2025, according to INSTAT. While, for 2024, permits were issued for a total area of ??2.4 million square meters, of which 1.95 million square meters were in Tirana alone. Given that 2025 does not include permits issued by the KKTU, the total area issued for permits is unknown. Furthermore, no data is provided for 2025 on the area of ??permits issued for the capital.

The publication of statistics on construction permits currently relies only on data provided by municipalities, which are the main authorities for issuing and reporting these permits.

However, the Council of Ministers No. 408, dated 13.5.2015 “On the approval of the territorial development regulation”, as amended*, stipulates that the process of approving construction permits also includes other responsible institutions, in addition to municipalities. Given that there is still no standardized and complete reporting by all these entities to INSTAT, the data published for the fourth quarter are based only on municipal sources.

The data published in the fourth quarter of 2025 cannot be compared with the data from the fourth quarter of 2024. INSTAT is working to ensure that all responsible institutions are included in a unified manner in the statistical reporting process.

According to current data, according to INSTAT, in the fourth quarter of 2025:

259 construction permits for new buildings have been approved.

The total area anticipated for new construction in this quarter is 340,477 m².

The approximate value of approved projects (which includes both buildings and engineering works) amounted to 19.4 billion lek.

Residential construction accounts for the majority of new permits, with 200 permits and a construction area of ??237,132 m².

Non-residential buildings (such as hotels, commercial and industrial buildings) occupy the rest with 59 building permits and 103,345 m² of surface area.

During the year 2025:

A total of 1,158 construction permits for new buildings have been approved.

The area of ??approved building permits for new buildings is 1,304,606 m².

The approximate value of approved construction permits for (buildings and engineering works) is 73.9 billion lek.

Residential construction accounts for the largest share of new permits, with 890 permits and a construction area of ??844,791 m².

Non-residential buildings (such as hotels, commercial and industrial buildings) occupy the rest with 268 building permits and 459,815 m² of surface area. Meanwhile, in this quarter's publication, INSTAT has not even published the surface area of ??permits issued in Tirana, unlike the previous quarter. In the third quarter, municipalities had issued a total of 350.6 thousand square meters of building permits, of which 252 thousand were in Tirana.

No one knows how many permits the National Territorial Council has granted.

Several meetings of the National Water Territory Council were held in the last quarter of 2025, with at least two in October, according to the planned calendar. These data seem to be kept "secret" and it will take time to understand the real situation with construction in the country./ Monitor