Bulgarian authorities have issued 3505 construction permits in the first quarter of 2008, a decrease of nearly 25 per cent over the previous three months, data from the National Statistical Institute data showed on May 21.

Residential developments continued to account for the largest share of the total, with 2267 permits granted for total area of area of 1.6 million sq m, compared with 2884 permits for 2.4 million sq m in the previous quarter. The number of permits for administrative buildings went down to 78 from 145.

Bourgas region received the largest number of permits for a third quarter running, although the figure nearly halved at 465, compared with 875 in October-January 2007. Varna saw the number of permits drop from 516 to 364, in Sofia the decrease was 406 to 342 and in Plovdiv - 433 to 320.

The four cities accounted for 42.5 per cent of all building permits, including 50.5 per cent of all residential ones for a total area of more than 892 00 sq me (56.3 per cent of total).