Dubai Municipality last year approved 29,000 building permits, while 6,043 buildings were completed.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General of Dubai Municipality said that the total area of construction completed in 2018 was 100 million square feet, which is a 6 percent increase in Dubai's urban construction sector compared to that of 2017 and most of which were multi-storey buildings.

He added that the simplification of procedures and ease of permits in Dubai is proceeding at a rapid pace, making building permits in Dubai is easier, enabling it to win first place in the Arab world and in the Middle East, according to the annual World Bank Business Report.

"In terms of volume of work in the construction sector in the emirate, Al Hajri stressed that the figures show the volume of work in the construction sector and real estate growth. The area permitted for 2018 amounted to 13.7 million square meters, of which 11.5 million square meters was for new construction and 2.1 million square meters for additions to existing buildings as the number of building permits issued during 2018 amounted to 29,480," said Al Hajri.

He pointed out that the licensing statistics show the qualitative transformation of the real estate market and the construction and investment pattern by comparing the percentage of the investment and commercial building areas compared to the residential villas.

"The building areas that were permitted in preparation for the start of operation of the multi-storey investment buildings were about 10 million square meters, which constitute 75% of the total area licensed for 2018. The residential villas accounted for 11% of the total area," said Al Hajri.

As for the role of the Municipality related to qualifying, registration and supervision of the work of consulting offices and contracting companies in the year 2018, the Municipality approved the registration of 802 new contracting companies of different types in the Emirate of Dubai. The total number of qualified contracting companies in the Emirate has now reached 9,086, which is an increase of 9% over 2017.

As for the engineering consultancy offices that design and oversee implementation, 36 consultancy offices were registered during 2018. The total number of qualified engineering offices in the Emirate has now reached 824, with different grades and categories, which is a 4 percent increase from 2017. The new registration is the first step for these offices and companies to enable them to open offices in the emirate, with a focus on qualified engineering cadres to be tested and accredited by the Municipality and complete the rest of the requirements.

Dubai Municipality launched the "Decoration Self Service" through which a large group of customers have been exempted from permit procedures to do the decoration work directly without the intervention of the Municipality. Other types of customers were also allowed to do self-licensing of the decoration automatically through the smart system, as the shopping centers in the Emirate were allowed to do its own decoration without the intervention of the Municipality, and without applying for licensing procedures, through which they were able to continuously update their decoration for marketing that help them to attract business.

The Municipality has also played a role in disseminating knowledge and awareness to all stakeholders, including consultants, contractors, developers, citizens and residents, by holding a number of events and seminars on global best practices and systems in the fields of construction and sustainability.

More than 130 new building systems were approved in 2018 by the Municipality to encourage innovation and the development of new methods and ways of construction.