Kuwait Municipality to issue private housing permits in one day, commercial in three

• Specifications certificate, receipt, and electrical current strengthening takes one day for space, three days for private housing, and five days for other uses.

The Kuwait Municipality has shortened transaction completion times as part of streamlining procedures. This involves automating engineering departments and their services, aligning with the country’s digital transformation efforts.

Engineer Saud Al-Dabbous, the Director-General of Kuwait Municipality, issued an administrative circular on Wednesday specifying the timeframes for completing various procedures. These include receiving borders, description certificates, connecting and strengthening electrical currents, terminating supervision, and licensing shops and buildings. The circular obliges all sectors, departments, and municipal branches in the governorates to adhere to these timelines.

Regarding building permits, the administrative circular stipulates that the steps for issuing a building permit for private housing must be completed within a maximum period of one day, including study and approval. For commercial, investment, or industrial buildings, the timeframe is three days.

It is also prohibited to request plans and regulatory approvals on paper when referring to regulatory opinions, approvals, and plans, as this should be done through a special electronic program.

Additionally, there is a requirement to match the cadastral plan of the property via the GIS system, which assigns each parcel a real estate number without the need for a paper cadastral plan.

It included a commitment to issuing all types of building permits electronically, with the requirement of submitting all official and supporting documents related to the property through engineering offices. Regarding shop licenses, the timeframe for completing the transaction was set at two days for residential areas, three days for commercial use, and five days for other uses.

Meanwhile, the timeframe for completing transactions for the specifications certificate, receipt, and strengthening of electrical current from the date of submitting the application on the electronic program for each transaction was specified as one day for space, three days for private housing, and five days for other types of uses.