1,212 new housing units were commenced in the first four months of 2012, according to new statistics released by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

This represents a drop of 539 units or 31% drop on the same period during 2011 when work began on 1,751 new units, according to the CIF's latest Housing Statistics Bulletin.

Of the new units commenced 1,022 were single units, representing 84% of the total activity. For the twelve month period up to the end of April of this year, 3,826 new units were commenced. This compares with the 5,787 units commenced in the twelve months up to April 2011, a year on year decrease of 1,961 units or 34%.

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The level of new house completions for the first five months of 2012 is also significantly down. Between January and May of this year 3,283 housing units were completed. This compares to 4,443 during the same period in 2011, which is a drop of 1,160 units or 26%.

Of the housing units completed 2,042 were individual units (62%), 822 were scheme units (25%) and 419 were apartments (12.8%).

9,320 housing units were completed in the twelve month period up to May 2012. This marks a decrease of 3,613 (28%) on the twelve months ending in May 2011 when 12,933 units were completed. A total of 10,480 housing units were completed during 2011. The CIF has predicted that between 7,500 – 8,000 units will be completed during 2012.

(CD/GK)