More construction and faster housing structure

There is a 10% decline in apartments under construction in Iceland based on the same period last year. However, the development of the development is faster than in recent quarters and more projects are underway between counts.

This is stated in a notification from the Housing and Civil Engineering Agency.

7,181 apartment is considered a national construction, which is almost the same number of apartments and was counted in the last count in September last year (7,221 apartment). At the same time last year, however, there were 7,976 apartments under construction.

The number of apartments in earlier stages, until the fox, is the smallest since the counting began in September 2021 and since March last year they have decreased by 947 apartments, or 22.7%.

HMS performs twice a year a comprehensive analysis of the state of housing development in Iceland with the counting of all apartments under construction. Such an analysis, which takes place in March and September each year, provides an overview of the scope of construction, their distribution between parts of the country and the development of different levels of the construction process, as stated in the announcement.

Decreasing in the capital area but increases in its vicinity

In recent years, apartments under construction in the metropolitan area have been declining, and this reduction continued this year. Construction projects in Kopavogur and Hafnarfjordur decreased most, where they decreased by 20.5% on the one hand and 19.9% ​​on the other between counts or a total of 339 apartments. In Reykjavik, the reduction was smaller, but nonetheless apartments are under construction there than they have been since HMS started regular counts in 2021.

At the same time, apartments under construction in municipalities in the vicinity of the metropolitan area are increasing by 19.7%. The largest increase in the municipality of Ölfus is, which amounts to 132.8%, but there was also a significant increase in the municipality of Vogar where apartments in construction increased by 98.9%. On the other hand, the development of Akranes has decreased, with a decrease of 19%.

Construction goes faster than before

In the counting of 2023, there was evidence that the progress of housing construction had been slow. This could be seen, among other things, that a considerable number of apartments were at the same level of progress between counts, despite the fact that in most cases they should have gone further in the process at the time between counting.

Since then, the development has been different, increasingly fewer projects are in place between counts and progress now seems faster. Most apartments with unchanged progress have been 3,929 in September 2023, but when looking at the number in connection with possible seasonal changes, apartments that now recommend unchanged progress are 61.4% fewer than measured two years ago and about 35.2% less than a year ago.

New construction work increases

Since the last count in September 2024, construction of 1,585 new apartments has begun across the country. These are apartments that were not under construction at the last counting and marking a continued turnaround from the low point of new construction in September 2023. For example, there are now 48.8% more apartments in new projects than was measured in March 2024.

Almost half of new construction projects, or about 49 percent, are in the capital area, which is proportionally less than previously measured. In comparison, 59 percent of new projects were there at the last count and 69 percent in March 2024, which indicates that new construction is now increasingly distributed to other parts of the country.