El Universal reported that the pace of construction of housing units is slowing down and prospects for recovery are grim, because developers consider that they will build fewer houses and apartments in the medium term.

According to data from the construction sector, in the first quarter of 2009, developers requested permits for building housing units in an area of 2 million square meters. However, in the first quarter of 2010, permits requested only covered 800,000 square meters.

This behavior shows that the number of permits to build houses went down 60%. The decline means that from next year the construction of housing will plunge compared to the current period.

Sources of the construction industry lamented that just a few developers have taken the risk to build new housing projects, because the current environment restrains the activity. They added that the prohibition to charge the Consumer Price Index in presale contracts, difficulties with the supply of inputs and legal uncertainty are damaging construction projects.

In the first quarter of 2010, housing construction dove 18%. Throughout this period, developers built 14,000 housing units, compared with 17,000 in 2009.

Whereas the private sector built the same amount of dwellings as in 2009, the number of units built by the public sector dropped 50% to 3,000.

(Sourced from www.eluniversal.com)