Western counties also rank at the top in terms of housing starts in proportion to population. Rogaland, Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane all posted rates of more than 1.3 housing starts per 1,000 inhabitants from January to March.
In the first three months of this year, Rogaland and Hordaland counties led the nation in new home construction. Rogaland reported 602 housing starts and Hordaland 556, accounting for one-fourth of all building work started on new homes.
The nationwide figure was 4,145 housing starts from January to March. This is up 25 per cent from the same period last year. Housing starts in 1994 and 1995 were also lower compared to this year. In March, construction began on a total of 1,330 houses, against 969 last year. Although the figures for Trondheim municipality in January and February are included in the March statistics, the numbers are clearly up compared to last year.
Oslo accounted for the fewest housing starts per 1,000 inhabitants in the first three months of the year. Building work commenced on only 186 new homes in the county, for a rate of 0.4 housing starts per 1,000 inhabitants. The number of housing starts in Oslo is 12 per cent lower than last year. Compared to the same period in 1994 and 1995, the number of housing starts is more than cut in half.
Weekly Bulletin issue no. 18, 1997