World Habitat Day

The first Monday of October every year is celebrated as the World Habitat Day. The theme of the Day, this year taking place on 5 October, is Planning Our Urban Future. The Day was designated by the United Nations to reflect upon the right of every person to an adequate shelter. Both developed and developing countries will have to face major challenges of the 21^st century, having as a starting point the importance of urban planning, which was for that very reason put into focus of this year’s World Habitat Day.

According to the Household Budget Survey, average consumption expenditures in 2008 amounted to 74 524 kuna per household, while expenditures for housing and fuel consumption in 2008 took second place with a share of 13.8% in the total expenditures of a household, right behind the expenditures for food and non-alcoholic beverages.

In construction, the value of completed construction works in 2007 amounted to 24 299 million kuna, while in 2003 it amounted to 16 190 million kuna. In 2007, 66.2% of the total value referred to the new constructions, while the rest referred to reconstructions, adaptations and small and major repairs. According to the indicators for 2007, legal entities invested a total of 23 713 million kuna and natural persons 586 thousand, that is, 2.4% of the total amount of the value of completed construction works.

The expected value of construction works, according to the number of building permits issued in 2008, increased by 23.5% as compared to the previous year and amounted to 41 389 million kuna.

In 2007, the total of 10 561 buildings was completed, 86.8% of which were new. The largest number of residential buildings contained one dwelling, more precisely 4 187. According to the number of dwellings, residential buildings with 3 and more dwellings followed with 2 008 in total. The smallest number of residential buildings completed, 1 235, had two dwellings. Regarding the number of dwellings, the total of 25 609 was completed in 2007, with the total surface area of 2 075 million m².

The total of 12 801 building permits was issued in the Republic of Croatia in 2007 most of which in the City of Zagreb, or 1 908 more precisely. County of Primorje-Gorski kotar followed with the total of 1 367 permits. The largest number of building permits, 8 730, was issued for the construction of residential buildings, which made 68.2% of the total number of building permits issued. In 2008, the number of building permits issued decreased by 4.1%, that is, 12 281 building permits were issued that year. In addition, there were 1.2% less building permits for dwellings, that is, 24 585 dwellings scheduled to be built.

According to types of constructions and works, 88.7% of building permits were issued for buildings in 2008, while regarding types of constructions 79.0% were issued for new constructions and 21.0% for reconstructions. According to types of constructions and works, 931 building permits were issued in July 2009, that is, 3.8% more than in July 2008.