4,518 construction permits for residential buildings were issued in July 2009, of which 64% in the rural areas. The numbers are down 4.8% over June 2009 and down 22.6% over July 2008. According to a press release by the National Statistics Institute, 28,382 construction permits were issued during the first seven months of 2009, down 19.4% y/y. The largest drops for the period in question were seen in Bucharest-Ilfov (-2,032 permits), Southern-Muntenia (-1,087), North-East (-796) and South-East (-708).
The distribution across the development regions shows a downward trend when it comes to the number of residential building permits. Sud-Muntenia (-170 permits), North-East (-66 permits), South-East (-24 permits), Center (-21 permits) and North-West (-2 permits). The other development regions saw slight increases in the number of permits for the construction of residential buildings.