The past year only three to four building permits were issued in Skopje Centre, while construction sites will be opened on 29 locations in Bitola, 10 in Stip, 8 in Kumanovo, and every fifth facility in Skopje will be built in Ilinden, Vecer writes.
The building expansion moves from the center of Skopje to the other cities. According to the number of building permits in December last year, this year the center of the capital will be more peaceful and there will be construction boom in Bitola, Gostivar, Stip, Struga, Ilinden in Skopje.
According to the latest report of the State Statistical Office in December last year only three building permits were issued in Centar.
- The locations in center are thinned out, but there are still some. The problem is that building lots are burdened with unresolved property issues, or have many owners who can not agree. A third problem is that the price is still high though housing prices fall. Owners still demanding to be compensated by at least 30 % of the constructed facility, and the constructor must allocate a portion for parking, which is a big problem. Now we have to strictly adhere to legal norms for parking. According to the latest standards, 25 to 30 square meters must be allocated for a vehicle, plus space for communication. We know that one family owns two cars, so if you need to park 60 cars, there must be 1,500 square meters for parking – the president of the Group for the construction of the Economic Chamber of Macedonia, Nikola Velkovski said. He added that it is possible underground garages to be built, but no one wants to buy them, although there is no place to park in the center of Skopje.
To earn more, Velkovski says, construction firms move from the other cities to Skopje.
- They will build apartments on the same expense and trouble in Skopje that will sell more expensive than in Strumica, for example, where the square meter is worth around € 650 to 700- he added.
With 30 of the 32 building permits issued for the entire Pelagonia region, Bitola is a city that this year will experience the greatest building expansion.
- One reason is that Bitola is the first Municipality which began to issue building permits electronically. Part of the approvals are for construction of housing, and some are for facilities in the industrial zone Zabeni. The urbanization of the former barracks has increased the interest for construction of residential buildings – Cvetanka Ristevska, responsible for public relations in the municipality says.
