DUBAI // More than 23,000 permits were issued last year for new construction projects.
Figures released by Dubai Municipality show more than half - 12,900 - were for new villas.
More than 3,300 were for multistorey buildings, 2,100 for industrial buildings and the remainder for commercial villas, facilities or floor additions.
"These numbers indicate the revival of construction industry," said Yusuf Abdullah, acting director of buildings department at the authority.
A municipality spokesman did not immediately have access to figures from previous years.
Ian Albert, the regional director for real-estate company Colliers International, said construction appeared to be on the increase.
"People are more optimistic," he said.
"There's certainly more construction going on than previous years.
"There's more confidence about the market and the longevity of what seems to be the recovery."
He speculated that the reason for the disproportionate number of villa projects could be because of the focus on building additional housing for Emiratis.
The municipality said there were 11,723 buildings under construction last year, and that 2,421 completion certificates had been issued.
The authority also demolished 197 sites last year and almost 100,000 sites were inspected across the emirate.
"The civic body undertakes all these procedures and inspections to confirm the safety of buildings and protect the lives of public in line with the vision to create an excellent city that provides essence of success and comfort of sustainable living," said Mr Abdullah.
@ For more on PROPERTY, visit thenational.ae/topics
