The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The value of new construction permits issued Bahamas-wide declined by 34 per cent year-over-year to $472 million in 2013, with the drop-off especially pronounced in Grand Bahama.

The 2013 Building Construction Statistics report backed contractors’ statements that the industry has yet to experience a sustained, broad-based turnaround with Grand Bahama suffering a 75 per cent drop in the value of new permits issued during the 2013 fourth quarter.

That may have turned around since, with Prime Minister Perry Christie telling the House of Assembly in his closing Budget address that the Grand Bahama Development Company was reporting year-over-year improvements in real estate and construction-related activity.

Yet many Bahamian contractors, and construction industry workers, are likely yet to feel the supposedly improving economic situation that the Government is at pains to push.

Data from the report, produced by the Department of Statistics, revealed that for 23 the number of new construction permits issued Bahamas-wide fell by 23.7 per cent, down from 1,916 in 2012 to 1,462.

And the value of permits issued fell by 34 per cent, from $716 million to $472 million. “The most significant impacts during this period occurred during the fourth quarter of 2013 in Grand Bahama, where a total of 70 permits issued, with a value of $19 million, indicated a significant decline over the same period in 2012, when there were 111 permits valued at $78 million,” the report said. “The decrease was 37 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively.”

The Family Islands also suffered a notable year-over-year decline in the 2013 first quarter, when the value of permits issued dropped by 99.8 per cent - falling from $79 million to $190,000. Construction permits for New Providence also dropped by 12.1 per cent or $55 million in the same first quarter.

A buoyant construction industry is vital to soaking up the semi-skilled and unskilled male labour in the Bahamian workforce, but the total number of new construction starts (a forward looking indicator of activity) in 2013 dropped from 467 to 405 year-over-year, a fall of 13.3 per cent.

But, on the bright side, the value of these starts rose 20 per cent to $140 million, compared to $117 million in 2012.

Commercial construction starts increased in value by 153 per cent year-over-year, rising from $21 million in 2012 to $53 million - driven largely by new projects in New Providence that started in the 2013 third quarter. These increased in value year-over-year from $3.4 million to $36 million

“Overall, the value of construction starts in New Providence was $126 million in 2013, an increase of 25 per cent over the 2012 figure of $101 million,” the Department of Statistics report said.

Construction completions fell by 100 units year-over-year in 2013, down at 707 from 807. The total value of these completions fell by 32 per cent, from $317 million to $216 million.

“The bulk of this drop was reflected in the commercial sector for Grand Bahama, which decreased from $87 million in 2012 to $8 million in 2013, and in the private sector for New Providence, which fell from $129 million in 2012 to $111 million in 2013,” the report found.