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Cyprus Construction
Increased economic activity from the late 1960s,
stimulated in
part by the second five-year plan, resulted in a rapid
growth of
construction, including new urban and rural housing,
commercial
establishments, industrial facilities, tourist
accommodations, and
government infrastructure projects. The sector's growth
rate
averaged 17.5 percent per year in current terms between
1968 and
1972 and rose to 24.8 percent in 1973. Construction
workers
numbered 25,000 to 28,600 in the 1968-73 period and
constituted
about one-tenth of the island's gainfully employed work
force.
The construction industry was hard hit by the Turkish
invasion
and occupation; construction by the private sector ceased
almost
completely. In 1975 the construction work force numbered
only about
8,900, or 6.2 percent of persons gainfully employed in the
south.
Commercial construction revived in 1976, when the
industry, in
response to government policy decisions and actions, began
to build
housing for nearly 200,000 refugees, many of whom were
living in
tents and makeshift shacks. This construction boom lasted
until
1981. The boom was further energized by events in the
Middle East,
which caused many businesses to move their headquarters or
offices
from Lebanon to Cyprus. Rapidly expanding tourism also
stimulated
construction of new facilities, as did industrial plant
construction. After the refugees were housed, the
government began
its program of building housing for low-income groups as
part of a
new, wider concept of government social responsibility. An
especially strong year in the boom period was 1979, when
the
construction industry expanded 36.3 percent and made up
13.4
percent of the GDP in 1979.
The construction industry experienced much lower growth
rates
in the 1980s. In the 1985-87 period, it actually shrank in
real
terms, and some Cypriot contractors were obliged to go
abroad to
find work. The industry remained an important part of the
economy,
however, with regard to both its contribution to the GDP
and the
employment it provided. In 1987, a representative year,
dwellings
absorbed about half of total construction investment,
nonresidential buildings about a quarter, and hotel
infrastructure
(such as roads, bridges, dams, irrigation works, and
telecommunication and electrical transmissions lines) the
rest.
Important spurs to the construction industry were the
Housing
Finance Corporation and the Land Development Corporation,
government entities created to enable middle- and
low-income people
to acquire their own houses. During the late 1980s, these
organizations provided low-cost loans and managed the
construction
of several hundred houses a year (in 1989 eighty-two
housing units
in Nicosia alone). The goal for 1990 was to construct 575
units in
the whole of the Republic of Cyprus.
Data as of January 1991
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