YEREVAN, March 28. /ARKA/. Armenian property developers are getting increasingly dissatisfied with the freezing of their construction licenses, Gagik Makaryan, the head of the National Union of Employers, told reporters on Wednesday.
Speaking in parliament today Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said a construction boom was shaping in the country. To substantiate, he cited the 20% growth in the construction sector reported in January and February this year and a sizeable rise in the mortgage lending.
However, Makarayn said that contrary to official statistics, construction industry representatives claim that these figures do not correspond to reality.
“Strangely, many construction licenses have been frozen and there is an incomprehensible and uncertain situation. As a result, the inflow of investments into the sector has frozen, but it doesn’t bother anyone,” Makaryan said.
In addition, according to him, many government agencies still do not fulfill their duties because of management problems, lack of professionalism and necessary knowledge.
“Basically, today construction is financed largely by mortgage programs, but construction volumes can be significantly higher if the obstacles are removed,” said Makaryan.
According to the National Statistical Committee, construction sector in January-February 2019 surged by 21.6% year-on-year to 25.1 billion drams.
Also the Central Bank said the amount of mortgage lending to residents at the end of February 2019 stood at 264.1 billion drams, which was 27.3% more than in the same period of 2018. ($1 – 486.15 drams) .