Geographic analysis of new dwelling construction in Norway

This report concerns the construction of new residential buildings expressed as building permits for dwellings. The building permits were retrieved from the source data for the construction statistics. The permits were georeferenced using the building identification number, and the coverage of georeferencing was examined.

The source data for the construction statistics includes records with a building identification number from 1983 and onwards. However, some links to coordinates are missing prior to the year 2000 – between 1 and 4 per cent for the country as a whole – which means that producing figures and conducting analyses at a lower geographic level may be problematic. We have therefore chosen to study the new building activity that has taken place in recent years, from 2008 to 2018.

The focus has been on municipalities with a low or high share of new-dwelling construction, defined as few or many building permits relative to the existing dwelling stock. The municipalities were broken down into five ranges, where the upper and lower intervals were over 20 % and 5 % and less respectively.

For the period 2008–2018, low building activity was observed in 101 municipalities, many of which are in Northern Norway, and are typically coastal municipalities. Many are also located in Southern Norway, but these are mainly inland. These municipalities are characterised by low populations and a low degree of centrality.

Fifty-two municipalities had a high share of building activity in the period 2008–2018. These municipalities are almost all located in Southern Norway. Some of the municipalities with a high share of new dwellings have a relatively small population.

The dwelling stock in municipalities with a low share of new dwellings is dominated by the construction of small residential buildings.