GLOPRAGlobal Property Radar

Bosnia building permits: 888 homes approved in September 2026

Bosnia approved 475 building permits in September 2026 covering 888 dwellings, with planned homes 9.7% up this year even as permit numbers fell 5.2%.

The facts

  • The Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported on 27 October 2026 that 475 building permits were issued in September 2026, of which 374 were for buildings and 101 for civil engineering works.
  • Those permits covered 888 planned dwellings with 71,032 square metres of useful floor area.
  • Against September 2025 the permit index stood at 94.6, the dwellings index at 96.1 and the floor area index at 98.9, so all three were below a year earlier.
  • Across January to September the picture splits: the permit index was 94.8 but the dwellings index 109.7 and the floor area index 105.3, all against the same nine months of 2025.
  • By building type, 609 of the 888 dwellings sit in buildings with three or more units, 201 in single-dwelling houses, 48 in two-dwelling buildings and 28 in extensions.
  • New construction accounted for 428 of the 475 permits, with 24 extensions, 15 other reconstructions, seven internal conversions and one conversion of non-residential space into a dwelling.

What it means for your money

  • Fewer permits, more homes: approvals are 5.2% down this year but planned dwellings 9.7% up. Supply is consolidating, not shrinking.
  • For anyone already holding Bosnian stock, 609 of the 888 approved dwellings sit in buildings with three or more units, so the new competition is concentrated in apartment blocks rather than houses.
  • The size split is sharp. The 609 units in multi-dwelling buildings share 35,769 square metres, against 28,524 square metres for 201 single-dwelling houses, which works out at 58.7 square metres per apartment against 141.9 per house.

What to watch

  • Civil engineering is the weak leg, at index 89.4 against September 2025 and 84.2 across the year to date.
  • The release carries no value of works in convertible marks and no split between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brcko District, so neither cost nor location can be read from it.
  • No month-on-month comparison is published; the agency indexes against the 2025 monthly average and the same month a year earlier, and this release prints no next date.

Sources: Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina https://bhas.gov.ba/data/Publikacije/Saopstenja/2026/CON_03_2026_09_1_BS.pdf; Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina https://bhas.gov.ba/Calendar/Category/17