Fiji saw a rise in construction activity in 2025 as building permits issued reached $618 million, according to the newly released Building Statistics Annual 2025 report, but a fall in the number of completed projects suggests the boost in approvals may not immediately ease housing supply pressures.
The report shows 1,095 building permits were issued nationwide in 2025, a 7.5 percent increase in the number of permits and a 4.9 percent rise in the value of works compared with 2024. Data collected from city and town councils indicate the bulk of that activity remained concentrated in the main population centres: the Central Division accounted for 50.6 percent of permits, the Western Division 39.8 percent, and the Northern Division 9.6 percent.
While more projects were approved, completion activity painted a more mixed picture. Only 239 completion certificates were issued in 2025 — a 29.3 percent drop in the number of certified completions from 2024 — yet the reported value of those completed works jumped 71.5 percent to $224.6 million. The large rise in completion value, despite fewer certificates, suggests that larger or higher-value projects reached completion this year even as the overall throughput of finished developments fell.
Regional patterns diverged between approvals and completions. The Western Division dominated the value of completed works, accounting for 78.9 percent of the total value recorded in completion certificates, while the Central Division made up 19.9 percent and the Northern Division just 1.2 percent. By contrast, the Central Division led in new permit issuance, underscoring how construction approvals and finalisations are unevenly distributed across the islands.
The statistics arrive against a backdrop of government concern about housing supply. In mid-2024 the Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad, acknowledged the government was struggling to meet surging urban housing demand and allocated $13.5 million in the 2024–25 budget for formalising informal settlements, while inviting private developers to deliver thousands of new residential units on state-managed sites. Observers say the uptick in permits could reflect policy momentum and private sector response to those signals, but the decline in completion counts indicates that promised additional housing stock may take longer to appear on the market.
Building statistics, which track both permits and completion certificates as indicators of construction-sector activity, show a sector in transition: approvals and the total value of permitted works are growing, yet the number of projects being formally completed has fallen. Policymakers and developers will be watching whether the higher-value completions recorded in 2025 translate into more widespread delivery of housing and infrastructure in 2026, particularly in the Central and Western Divisions where demand pressures remain greatest.
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