Total approved area falls to 497,565 sqm amid parish moratoriums and urban plan revisions, with new builds

Urban development approvals in Andorra fell 28% in 2025, reaching 497,565.50 square metres—the lowest total since the pandemic year of 2020.

The Col·legi d'Arquitectes d'Andorra (COAA) validated this volume across new builds, reforms, demolitions, and extensions, down from 691,115.49 square metres in 2024 and well below the 2022 peak of 813,077.81 square metres. New construction, the dominant category, dropped nearly 30% to 390,105.63 square metres from 554,850.24 the previous year, though it remained above 2021 post-Covid recovery levels.

Reforms declined 23.5% to 93,061.44 square metres, while demolitions halved to 5,156.53 square metres from 9,949.22. Extensions were the outlier, nearly doubling to 9,241.90 square metres—a near 100% increase from 4,615.57.

December stood out with 83,784 square metres of new builds approved, exceeding the prior two months combined and marking the second-highest monthly total for new construction in two years, after June 2024's over 132,000 square metres. Extensions also peaked that month at 6,650 square metres.

Professionals attribute the annual slowdown to construction limits in several parishes, driven by urban plan revisions and moratoriums that prevented partial plans from advancing. The Ordino moratorium lifted late in the year, while fears of new restrictions in Massana and Sant Julià de Lòria spurred a filing rush. Laura Sánchez, COAA dean, noted that "many parishes" faced such curbs in 2025. Rumours of further POUP reviews fueled preemptive applications to secure building rights.

Earlier projections from January to August had suggested a steeper 60% drop in new builds, but final figures showed a more contained decline. The second half of the year saw some recovery, though the outlook remains uncertain amid discussions of sustainable growth, a potential soil law, and a General Council extension of work moratoriums approved in April. Professionals await 2026 data to assess if December's activity signals a turnaround.